Paddock Drainage

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JohnParfit

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After this year of rain we're thinking of putting some drainage in our 5 acre winter paddock. We rest it and take hay in the summer.

We're in the Chilterns on clay and the top half of the field is flat and the rest slopes gently down. We have 4 horses out 24/7.

From what I have been reading we need to put in some french drains backfilled with gravel and a perforated land drain at the bottom. We should then have diagonal mole drains that run through the gavel layer.

has anyone done this ? Would be interested in experiences of how effective it was and costs? Also any recommended contractors in Bucks area.

Thanks. John.
 
No experience of french drains but our fields are mole drained (we're on very heavy clay) and when the rain really comes down you can see the mole drain holes in the side of the ditches pouring like a hosepipe!!
It was done before we moved in 5 years ago so probably needs re-doing at some point soon - a major benefit is no digging up of your field, which is key if you need to take hay off it.
 
the mole drains are fine as long as you keep them clear. as soon as they get blocked with mud they dont work... the ones at our last yard didnt work out of lazyness because the outles became blocked :o
 
Get yourself a reliable and well recommended drainage contractor -- or several!

Drainage is a skilled operation and needs to be done by someone who knows. Try Yell.com under agricultural contractors or agric drainage contractors.

Get competitive quotes. Horsey folk are known to be easy targets. Hence the hyped prices on anything with "horse" in the name.:(
 
Horsey folk are known to be easy targets. Hence the hyped prices on anything with "horse" in the name.:([/QUOTE]

"And the Old Farm Contractors Proverb"

If their are Horses up the Drive you are usually better Off not Going up It;)
 
A very a-propos question, as I'm exploring the perimeter of my own place and trying to understand the ditches I see...what exactly is a "mole drain"? Sounds like a tunnel of some sort?
 
Thanks for the replies.

I found a couple of local firms from the Land Drainage Contractors Association website, so have dropped them a line.

Based on the surname and location, one of them looks to be related to a local farmer friend of ours so will hopefully avoid the equestrian surcharge ;-)
 
My fields are all 'tile drained' as they are called over here. That means they have big plastic pipes (about 5inches diameter) with holes in them put underground which run down to the lowlands. I have several ponds on my land and again they are lightly tile drained so that they slowly drain away into the much larger pond/lake thing down in the woods at the lowest part of my farm. My farm has the sources of a number of streams which run into a very large river closeby and if it wasn't tile drained then we would probably run into mud problems. We have huge machines over here called Ditch Witches and they make installing drainage a quick process. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ditch_Witch_HT330_Track_Trencher_Stationary.jpg
 
JohnParfit said:
P.S. For the curious I found a couple of you tube videos of French Drainage installation and Mole draining. As I understand it, you run a couple of French drains down the paddock and then mole drain diagonally through the stone layer on a more regular basis (depending on silting) once the primary drains are in place.

http://youtu.be/IsIytG_AaWQ


http://youtu.be/EB38QQncXNc
Click to expand...

That's how we do it over here too. The tile drains on my farm are about 10ft apart so there are lots of them running parallel to each other and then they all meet up with another drain which diverts the underground water to run to wherever you want it to go, in my case the pond/lake in the woods. You won't ever regret putting drains in!
 
spookypony said:
A very a-propos question, as I'm exploring the perimeter of my own place and trying to understand the ditches I see...what exactly is a "mole drain"? Sounds like a tunnel of some sort?
Click to expand...

A mole drain is formed by pulling a bullet shaped point through the clay with a larger expander on a couple of links of chain behind the point this smears the clay and the water runs dowm the slot formed by the leg into the mole drain and away the mole plough needs to pulled in ove rthe ditch bank to allow the water into the ditch and because a mole leaves chevron feathers in the clay a mole is better pulled up hill to increase water flow.
Ditches need to be cleaned out regularly or water will never get away.
 
Most agricultural land will have been drained in the past. Check your ditches as often all it needs to get pipes working again is to clean the outlets.

Mole drainage can be done with a decent sized four wheel drive tractor.

But a good contractor should be able to advise you.
 
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