No grazing!

B

Blackhawk

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This morning I awoke to utter carnage. The river near us flooded, has flooded up the incline over my five acres and leaving me with just my stables in tact.

I have utterly no grazing, and the access to my land is totally cut off.

The horses are in now and getting lots of hay and being fed little and often. I've got some 'toys' in there for them too.

I suppose it's a bit like box rest, but I won't have any grazing left when all the water goes! It'll still be saturated, and does anyone know if my grass will have been stripped of nutrients?

I'm quite worried
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I've taken some photos if I can find the cables to make it work on the PC.

My fencing is all gone, my troughs....one is missing and one is floating in the large lake that was my paddocks.

If it gets any worse I think I'll have to evacuate them!
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If it gets any worse I think I'll have to evacuate them!

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I was just wondering that. Do you have somewhere they could go??
 
My next door neighbor has plenty of grazing and has been unaffected so I may go over, introduce myself and ask for help. If not I can go back to my old livery yard for a bit.

I have no idea how to get them out of the paddock though. We're totally cut off.
 
If it's any consolation, we have a water meadow and the grass which grows after it has drained in the Spring is second to none! Your grass should be fantastic this year.
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I have no idea how to get them out of the paddock though. We're totally cut off.

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Crikey - maybe you'd better change your siggy to "Ark required"

I'm sure the neighbour would help, I'd guess the water may go down a bit before the next deluge - maybe worth getting them out to be on the safe side, unless its too dangerous to lead them through it 0 you have no idea whats underneath I guess - wouldn't want to get tangled in eleccy fencing etc.

Hope everything is OK!
 
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If it's any consolation, we have a water meadow and the grass which grows after it has drained in the Spring is second to none! Your grass should be fantastic this year.
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That's very good to know! I did wonder if the river would deposit sediment on the field which would help, but I'm worried about the short term affects too.
 
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Crikey - maybe you'd better change your siggy to "Ark required"

I'm sure the neighbour would help, I'd guess the water may go down a bit before the next deluge - maybe worth getting them out to be on the safe side, unless its too dangerous to lead them through it 0 you have no idea whats underneath I guess - wouldn't want to get tangled in eleccy fencing etc.

Hope everything is OK!

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An ark would be useful! It'll be waist height where the gates are, so very deep. I am worried about leading them through it, as you said electric fencing etc. I have no idea where all my fencing has gone! Or one of my troughs!

The only bother I could see about the neighbor is that she's resting her paddocks but she has a lovely 4 acre field next to my house that is nice and dry.
 
As long as the top soil is not swept away by a large current then the grass will grow again.

How about getting the local TA to make you a large raft to move your horses out?
 
Forecasts are rainy from Wednesday
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Where I was standing I had wellies on and it was up to my ankles at the shallow bits. No chance of it going down soon. I think I'll see what it's like in the morning as we've had a dry day today thank goodness.
 
Never thought about anything like that, I may ask the OH what he thinks.

There isn't any current at all, so the water is quite clear and you can see mud and small amounts of grass beneth it. Mostly mud though.
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(at least it's cleared my muck pile away!)
 
where we used to keep our horses when I was a child the fields were always flooded for a while during the spring from the river overflowing after the winter; grazing was perfectly fine afterwards just had to keep them in for while it was totally flooded but overall it didnt do the horses any harm at all.
 
Goodness - what a lake. Does the river usually flood? You may find that the river authority can open sluice gates further down stream to reduce the flood, especially as livestock are at risk? It might be worth a phone call to find out. You are really going to be in trouble if we have more rain (and bad weather is forecasted this week) and your stables flood. Definitely ask the neighbours for help. Can you post how you get on?
 
Residents around here have been banging on to the local council about fixing the flooding problems, but so far no luck. Smome years it's fine, other times the roads close. My paddocks are the worst of them.

I think I'll be hiking round to neighbors tonight, if not then some of the local farms.

We are due more rain, at the minute I'd say the water is six feet away from my stable doors.
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Oh cripes, i hope all goes well and the horses are o.k. I'm certain at times like this your neighbour would help out! If you are worried about the electric fencing etc, can you turn the power off totally at the mains and try cutting it away if you have to lead your horses through!

Not sure on the field/grass management, have you tried googling something like "effects of flooded grazing"!

Sounds like you need a pair of waders, good luck!
 
The power was off thank goodness, though I'm still worried about the electric tape that is somewhere under the water. Plus some of my post and rail is missing. (probably due to the wind)

I'm going to go out in the morning and clear a path through it all as much as I can in case I need to move them tomorrow. I'd end up having to take them up the busy roads to the neighbors. J would be fine but I can imagine H having a huge paddy on the roads. Just more stress!
 
Your grazing should have extra nutrients in the soil after flooding - 'flood plains' are usually aluvial goldmines for growing things - e.g. a lot of the Loire valley in France is floodplain

The worry is the water. is there no-one that could let you use their field with warm rugs or give you a barn or something

I would be very worried about leaving horses in a flooded stable in case they paniced, got out and got caught up in fencing they cuoldn't see for flood water.
 
The water is about 6 feet from the stable, and it's due to be dry tonight and rainy later in the week. That's my worry too. Even if the rain holds off I'm still going to find them a temporary place at least until the flood water recedes. Though then it'll be a sludge pit of mud.
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view the sludgy bit as free fertiliser - will do your grazing good

just find somewhere that you can lodge for about a month if possible to let your land dry out (hopefully) or till the worst of teh winter floods are over

very good luck - horrible and worrying for you
 
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