Boggy clay soils, anyone have any solutions?

Storminateacup

Storminateacup

Well-Known Member
Joined
25 March 2008
Messages
1,633
Location
2nd star on the right and straight on 'til morning
Visit site
We've got ten acres of heavy clay soil in Scotland and its a bog, every field we fence has turned to brown mud within a week with the awful wet weather weve been having recently. Husband bought a digger last summer and has been ditching the perimeters of the fields, cleaning field drains and laying and repairing field drains. With two irish cobbys its a nightmare, we are also on some slopes and hills. My young horse gallops about and with his weight on the soft ground goes down about 8 inches in some places. I am despairing. I ve now got them in about 2 and a half acres as husband has rendered the other fields too dangerous to use by leaving open ditches everywhere! Can't put my horses in the field shelter field either as thats a bog too, and has never really recovered from last winter.
What I want to know is has anyone had any success in digging ditches and putting in field drains and making heavy clay soils safe and pleasant for horses.
Mine grass ski from late summer and by December I start thinking how am I going to get them through without mud fever or foot rot. Both live out 24/7, I have no access to stables.
The fields have been neglected for almost 40 years, I cannot believe that this land once supported 10 -20 cows and sheep and was also once a trekking centre with 20 horses on i!. There is a further 16 acres but that is unfenced and overgrown with woodland on it perimeters and currently too far from water, or the house.
I love to hear how the rest of you cope with clay soils.
 
We are on clay and I built a cheap turnout/arena which they r on when ground wet. It is a life saver they r clean and have exercise and when drier have the grass . It cost 7k but u could fence an area off and try cheaper alternative. Clay is a nightmare x
 
We have 5 acres on clay soil and I do feel for you its a nightmare, extreamly hard in summer and soggy and sticky in winter.
I cant help with the fields but we also put up a double field shelter, we set the sides onto old railway sleepers, then filled with about a foot deep of hardcore, also in the entrance, and then inside the shelter laid grass mats. ( 4x3 foot mats with holes in)
We have had ours down for 4 yrs now and it lovely and dry and the mats dont get slippy even when wet and help to spread the weight of the horses no no sinking.
Hope this is of some help :O)
 
We are on heavy clay here too and we have land drains and dykes both sides but nothing makes any difference when it gets poached.

We now let them trash one paddock until it gets really bad and then they go on what used to be an old manege as turnout and we feed hay on it.

We let it get covered in weeds and grass over the Summer so that they have something to pick at at least.

A winter turnout area may be the only solution I am afraid.
 
Oh dear not a great outlook then! We certainly couldn't afford 7k and even a few thousand would be impossible atm. i am at my wits end and seriously thinking to sell my lovely horses and just give up. We've spent 1000s already on fencing around £8,000 n total I think and then the digger was £16,000 plus the tractor last year, just cant do more now. I cannot understand why the horses in the next field seem to have such better ground, our fields are higher up too but drainage holes for the house site were still full of water weeks ago. Husband says the fields are saturated from the terrible wet summer we had too, and it will get better with field drains and ditches, I am skeptical!
 
Boggy clay is just the worst!

I think you might need to wait until the summer until it's rock hard again before doing anything decent with it. I don't know about digging drains, I've never had the money or equipment to be able to tackle anything like that.

Years ago I got a load of free wood chippings delivered from a tree felling company. They happened to be paying someone up the road to dump all their waste, so were happy to dump at mine for free!

I think what I'd do in your case is fence off maybe an arena sized area now. Would it be possible for your husband to get in there now with the digger and scrape off the top bit of bog? And then I'd try laying a geotextile membrane and see if I could get some free chippings. Lay them as deeply as possible and flatten it down with the digger. Then use that as the turnout for the winter.

(It would work better if the land was rock hard and level first, but might work in the interim)

My field was just hellish years ago, but having laid a concrete pad by the gate from which I feed hay off, a paving slab path over to the water tank and wood chipped a third of the winter 'trash' paddock, I can tell you that you CAN keep the mud in abeyance!

I reckon the whole thing cost me £200 in ballast and cement and bloody hard work!

For emergencies, I find old carpets are brilliant. Just chuck it on top and it sort of floats on top for a few months until it eventually sinks in and rots away!
 
You have my utmost sympathy!!! I only have a 1 acre paddock and we are on clay, just above a flood plain. By Feb last year I was looking at having my mare put down because she had recurrent thrush and I couldn't pyhsically get her off the mud. To cut a long story short, this year I managed to find some more grazing to rent but am letting them wreck that while I try to winter-proof my paddock. I have scoured out a track and bought some gallops chippings which I laid about 6" thick. These lead from the hardcore drive to the field shelter which I have saved up and had put on concrete (expensive I know). The rest of the field may be trashed but at least they have some respite on the dry bits now. I also put down grass mats at the gate to try and keep it from getting so deep.

Thinking of you though - clay is the worst :(
 
You might be able to do a temporary job with some road scalpings in a fenced off area? This we use for our track and areas where the horsebox is parked etc - its rock solid.

Our field is a bit of a mess though, don't think the horses like it. Thankfully they have enough to only have the bits aorund the gate/shelter being awful - I'm considering mats for next year :)
 
Thank you everyone for your very valuable advice. I have the digger, (industrial sized 8 tonner,) I have a large roll of Teram ( membrane). can't get road planings as no roads works around here, i m in Scottish Highlands, with only minor roads for miles. Last time i use wood chip they rotted to dust in about 5 months. Anyone else have this problem? I had to buy my wood chips but they were jolly good until they did rot down. had them in field shelter but they made my old horse cough, after they rotted. Husband said stone and then gravel on top but on only v. expensive but also hard if they fall on it. Maybe pea- gravel?
 
Storminateacup said:
There are not many farmers in the Highlands who are very pro horses! Horse owners and riders are pretty unpopular, heavens this is sheep country, and one may ponder why, perhaps the land is best suited for sheep!
Click to expand...
Yes I know, but there may be some driving people, can you ask on SCDA or BDS sites?
Farmers are far too grumpy for their own good, but as they are well paid to look after the countryside, I think you can ask for a favour to be returned!
 
mon said:
Can you prove they are well paid to look after the countryside? There is payments but rules to follow.
Click to expand...
Most farms would be redundant if they did not get subsidies, I don't think I said they should not get them.
You can check out the levels if you google farm subsidies, farming is as much about money management as agricultural management these days.
You will find this interesting if you live in the UK and want to look out on green fields and well fenced farmland:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7749477.stm
 
Last edited:
You have my sympathy! I'm on clay soil too and here in North Devon we have had a lot of rain this year. My horses are stabled at night but go out in the field during the day as I work. We dug out, laid a Terram membrane and stoned the gateways and around the water trough. We also put up a field shelter using telegraph poles and recycled tin sheets (lined on the inside with sterling board). The roofing sheets and timbers were bought new. (Birthday money from my mum!) Inside we laid a membrane and stoned the floor. It is a large field shelter and open on two sides but in a sheltered part of the field. We put haylage in there and the horses use it alot. It does mean they have somewhere dry to stand.
 
Thanks again Everyone, some more brilliant ideas. At the mo my two stand on a rocky hill at the top of my field shelter field and that gives them dry feet, but I worry about when it gets icy. Hubby says the soil on top of the clay is about 5 ft deep, and that the only thing that will work is field drains being cleaned out so they work properly, there is a network of them, but we are not sure how many may be broken after 40 years of total neglect. He says he will dig up the ditches at the edges of the fields and then he will be able to clear out the field drains. He has used something like rods with a brush on the end and it has seemed to worked quite well on the bottom flat field that was a horrendous bog. - well at least I can walk across it now without stepping in pools of water, maybe we will be able to use this field too when he has filled the open ditches that are all over it!!.

Today I went and looked at another field on the farm,there is 37 acres in total, but some of the fields are quite a way from the barns and I have felt uncertain at the prospect of leading my young horse on the road that runs out through the farm. However he goes away for re training in May and I feel when he comes back I may have a more confident horse! The field is close on ten acres and is on much higher ground. Checked it today and its very firm despite the wet weather. Trouble is only one side is well fenced so that would mean a further 3 sides to do, so another two grand min, I would think. Never ending expense it seems!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top