Wet Pastures

We have been plagued the past 2 winters with a wet pasture. Not damp - wet. Wet as in 3-4 inches of mud. This is the main reason the Red pasture is not used in the winter. Once the ground gets soggy, the goats just tear it up and turn it to mud. It's a shame, because the rest of the year, it is a beautiful place. Last winter, we found a springhead had developed in the middle of the field. We never got a chance to dig it out or do anything with it because of the snow and frozen ground. By the time we could address it, the groundwater had receeded and the spring went away. It did, of course, pop up again this winter and is putting out almost 5 gallon a minute. We believe it is the primary culprit in turning the majority of the Red pasture into a muddy, mucky mess. But this has been a very mild winter and the weekend was rather warm. So, we took the opportunity to address the spring. The Blue pasture also has a very active spring which pumps 10-15 gallons a minute or more depending on precipitation. But that spring feeds into a little stream which runs down to the creek and thus the pasture stays dry. We decided to see if the same fix would work on the smaller spring. We dug a 1 foot deep, 60' long trench to connect the little spring to the stream. Tough work in heavy mud. So far, the standing water has drained away. The ground is still muddy, but it seems a bit better. With the anticipated rain and snow, it's going to be difficult to really judge the success of this project until next winter. But we should be able to see more improvement as the winter wears on, particularly on the standing water problem. If it is helping, we'll dig it out a little deeper and line it with rocks and gravel.

Step two in pasture draining - we have another rather large stream bed that fills when there is a lot of precipitation in the winter/spring. It just kind of comes to an end in the back corner of the Red pasture and floods the area we want to put a new pasture in this summer. We need to extend that steam bed to connect to the other and stop all the water from pooling in that location. Or maybe route it down to the pond. Plus, I think there is another springhead in that area. Lots more work. But once it is done, we will have a very nice new grazing area.