Need to sort the drainage in the lower field.....Advice?

ElleSkywalker

ElleSkywalker

As excited as Kitty about to be a bridesmaid
Joined
9 March 2011
Messages
13,100
Location
Tiny farm some where in UK
Visit site
Tee hee couldn't resist the Fast Show ref :biggrin3: Although it's not the lower field, it's the upper!

Prompted by another thread and the lovely mud soup my ponies are currently stood in am needing to get some drainage sorted in my heavy clay top field.

It used to be part of the same field as my neighbour who says his section has drainage therefore mine should too but it appears not to be working so needs looking at at some point in future and either unblocking or re doing depending on what is found.

So, bearing in mind it's pretty heavy clay is drainage likely to help much? Who has had it done? What are the likely costs for a 3 acre field? Are there any companies that are likely to do such a small area or is it case of find a farmer?

Christmas cake and bitey cats for all

Elle
 
Hi! Elle, we're in the same boat had to move my trio, the grounds the same as yours but the rainfall flows down a neighbouring field into ours & you can guarantee where the ground is soft its where they decide to stand & hang out!!!

Thankfully after nearly 4 years of grumbling the land owner has agreed to get a mini digger to reinstate a ditch & put some piping underground to flow away from the affected area. He's also doing something else too but l don't think it will cure the problem but believe that it will stop it getting really waterlogged. There are afew other horsey people around the area that have had probs due to the clay soil. With regards to the cost l've no idea but l'd foot the bill if it meant my horses were happy in a field that dors get poached etc hope you get it sorted soon
 
If there are land drains your best bet is to try and locate them, our run parallel every 7 yards, then dig down to the pipe and repair it or rod it to unblock it - this may require exposing it pipe in more than one area to locate and remove the blockage. Obviously this is best done when it's dry so you may have to wait until summer. Clay areas will always struggle with drainage but it does help. We tend to use a farmer to help as several years ago we had the misfortune to have a pipeline laid acrooss our land. When laying it the contractors didn't cap off the drains they cut through, despite having agreed to this, and the drains blocked with all the soil and clay washed down them. After a big fight a drainage specialist came in to sort this and laid some new drains in the worst affected area. They were in for 2 days and laid about 75m of pipe total cost £23,000. Our farmer charges by the hour and does a much better job!
 
This thread is interesting, we could also do with some drainage in our large sloping field, I did get a quote last year about mole ploughing, for about 8 acres I think it was £500-800. But there was no guarantee that would work or for how long, could not work at all but could work for 3-5 years. I think it would be too costly to put land drains in our field, but I might look at mole ploughing this summer to help with next winter.
 
EM 23k? Eeeps!

DN we have uncovered a lovely ditch.......right at the top of the field! So it's pretty useless but at least we have re-instated it!

I am having the hedge at the bottom of this extra muddy field laid in the next month so if we find a ditch will get it cleared.

Sadly the lowest point of the land is where the gate is :rolleyes3: drainage or not I think some hardcore is going to need to go in the gateway!
 
We had a company called Pearl drainage do a couple of arable fields last year. It was expensive, but they were big fields. Might be worth a quote, they did a proper job.
Mole ploughing works as a short term measure but the soil needs to be really dry for it to do a good job.
 
Pretty much, my whole farm is tile drained (not sure the British name of them) so 100 acres of drains running underground. The big plastic underground tiles (pipes) run parallel every 10ft or so and they in turn run into bigger tiles which run at 90 degrees to the others. These big pipes take all the water away down to a lake in our bottom woods. Our farm is never wet and muddy and if you can afford underground drainage you won't regret it!
 
I have had new drainage installed in my fields which are on clay soil and they have worked very well.
From my own experience it is far easier to install new drainage then to try to repair old pipe etc.
 
We've got land drains running all over the land my horse is on. The land owner did it himself a few years ago - think he hired a digger for about £100/day, got 18 tonne of quarry stone delivered for £120 (had a few loads though), and bought loads and loads of land drains at cost price. I'd say it cost him about £5-7k to do 8 acres, but he literally did everything himself - dug the trenches, laid the drains etc. The price would have at least doubled if he'd employed a company to do it.

There's a ditch running parallel to the bottom field but outside it which has all the land drain pipes fed into it, and that then feeds into the big river at the bottom of the drive. He was quite lucky that the ditch was already there and that all of the land is on a gentle slope towards the river - it would've been a lot more difficult if the land wasn't naturally set up this way.

Our fields are the driest in the area, and I'm not exaggerating! The bottom of the bottom field has ended up a little muddy as the land drain down there got blocked and we didn't get to it with the rods before the horses decided to have a party there :p.

If we ever get round to buying land then we'll be putting drainage in as I now think it's essential on clay soil, I can't imagine how some people manage. Stoning the drains is very very important though - you can always get cheaper stone from the local quarry if you ask for the stuff that is of no use to them.
 
How deep is the problem layer - is it surface issue or deeper than that?

A friend had a paddock where the top 3" was packed SOLID, under that it freely drained - very odd but that's what it was - it got 'aerated' to a depth of 5" and it helped a bit.

Underlying clay will unfortunately be an issue though...
 
The soupy bit is about a foot deep! There is also a lot of standing water on hoof prints etc that doesn't seem to drain.......

ETA the field has not been grazed in over 5 years, just had one cut of hay taken off it a year. The grass was reasonably long and woody but not thick at the root due to not being grazed, whereas next door that is heavily grazed in summer is hardly muddy at all so I anticipate once the grass recovers and I graze it more intensely it will not be this bad again even without sorting the drainage :)
 
Last edited:
You will need to hardcore your gateway whatever happens, clay is a nightmare without it. We have a couple of drainage pipes through our field but they aren't really enough tbh. Sorry, I can't remember the cost but will follow this thread for more draining ideas. God I hate clay!
 
Yep hardcore is on the list for summer whatever :)

For walkway to and from the field we have had some success with grass mats BUT I wouldn't have then in the fields with horses as they would get tangled up in them.

For paths next year am thinking hardcore, thin layer of soil on top so a bit of grass grows and maybe grass mats on top. If that doesn't work it'll be road plannings over the hardcore the following winter but if possible I would like the paths to be grass as they are quite long :)

Anyone want to join the clay soil support group? :rolleyes3:
 
We've got our own land here: divided into a 3-acre field and another, separate, 10 acres.

We have a DIY livery and she has the 3 acre bit, mine have limited/fenced off access to part of the 10 acres.

We are on gunky Devon Clay here. A few years ago we decided to bite the bullet and put in drainage to the 3 acre (livery's) bit. We also put down hardcore in the gateways and entrances. It was the best money we have ever spent here.

The field where I put my two is just a swamp at the moment, they keep losing shoes out there as its got the consistency of liquid toffee :( - I'm in the process of getting quotes to drain it at the moment, so am following this thread with interest.
 
You could build a decent sized turn out area with all weather surface for less money in some cases.......
 
,field is a pure mud bath just now, first winter here and have underground streams, now overflowing, running between gates, horse are queing up to be first out of the mud, never known it, as the area is quite narrow, come dry weather, I'll dig a trench, put a land drain in and divert the stream to outside my field
 
Also following this thread with interest! The majority of our field is OK but the edge nearest the house and our small separate paddock (which the horses have to walk to in order to get to their shelter) is absolutely swamped... gets like this every year. We are strongly considering putting in some drainage as I think it would vastly improve things for the horses and for us too.
 
Count yourselves lucky I live in an area with the muddiest entrances to fields in the uk. Claygate! I really think it's true!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top