10/16/2023
One of the things we here often when people come to the farm is “there’s no mud!” Or “Its so dry here even with the rain!” And honestly— those are the things that bring SO much joy to us as it is something we have taken very seriously into consideration with everything we do here.
Our mission is consistent, purposeful improvement of the land and soil. Animals, especially large hooved animals like horses, are VERY tough on the pastures as they are not designed to be kept in small turnouts - they are expected to move their heavy bodies over long tracks of land. When we put them in paddocks, a lot of things happen— the earth is compressed down and left with little to no aeration, the native grasses and vegetation (with very deep root systems) are destroyed, and often— people this on purpose because they like the idea of “dry lots” — with nothing at all except what is provided in a hay net, on dirt. My feelings on this will be in a separate post, however to go back to dealing with mud— if we remove all the things that help manage mud naturally, then we have to be proactive on how we approach our pastures.
Why mud is an issue in all the most inconvenient places: The animals will hang out by the gate and sometimes pace the fence line — thereby compress the soil. Compressed soil not only is very dense and loses its ability to drain, but also changes the grade of those areas so they are lower. Lower grade + condensed soil is a recipe for water retention. Add organics like manure, urine, hay, shavings… and you’ve got a p**p soup mud mess that lingers long after the rain has gone.
There are a LOT of products on the market that tell you they will help with mud. Plastic grids, mats, pellets etc…. But the bottom line is, there are no quick fixes and if you pay attention and take the time to maintain it, you won’t have to spend a pant load of money on artificial solutions. Here is how we approach mud here, in New England, because there is a pretty straightforward formula to fixing it while working with the earth.
NO ORGANICS by the gates. No hay by the gates— walk it deep into the pasture. No bedding by the communal areas. Its a common thought to added shavings or wood pellets to the area to absorb the moisture, however all you will get is a bigger, nastier mess as it will absorb and hold water for WEEKS. Unless you plan on putting it down and then picking it all back up, do not use organics. Not to mention… many animals will see those shavings and use it as their bathroom even more, adding to the struggle. If you have an in-and-out stall, make sure you remove all the shavings and extra hay that they horses walk out into the outdoor area or leave behind. Its way easier to do it when the shavings/hay is dry then when they are wet and gross.
Grass and native vegetation is your friend. More on this in a post about pasture management and root length. But honestly… let it grow.
We had an issue with mud due to organics in our pasture with the donkeys. We put in a load of chipped apple tree cuttings for donkey enrichment (they love to take stuff apart) and after they had gotten bored with it, it became a bathroom area— directly by the gate. This made a HUGE mess and as the rain kept coming…. We had a huge soggy mud issue that we did not have in the other pastures. Between the lowered grade due to soil compaction, the lack of vegetation, and the amount of organics… we needed to fix this asap because it made it impossible to get in and out of that pasture without going ankle deep in gross.
Step 1: remove the organics. This means scraping ALL the mud down to the hard pack. This is not just manure, but also enriched topsoil due to the manure and in our case, apple tree chips. We save this as compost and will use it in the raised beds. Clint spent a day scraping this area down and then letting it dry out.
Step 2: correct drainage and the grading. Around the gate is now lower, so it is necessary to bring it back up higher than surrounding areas. Ideally, we want the water to shed into the road (which was built to double as a drainage area and dry well) or shed into grassier areas where the vegetation can manage it. Raising the grade means bringing in dirt to literally raise it. We recently had another project which created a large dirt pile we could use, which is mineral-heavy— meaning NOT top soil. A sand/common fill mix is the best as it will drain while staying firm while wet. If you do not have a chosen area for watershed, then it might be time to look into building a dry well, swale, or other area for water to be graded into. Clint then added a truckload of fill and graded the entire front area into the low, high veg areas with some areas to drain into the road.
Step 3: more grading to make sure watershed is away from the gate and common areas. We also removed all the rocks as we did not have clean (rock-free) fill. We compressed the newly graded area with machinery and the animals will do the rest in keeping it compressed. Some small (dime sized and smaller) rocks we left as it will add structure and firmness to the area. I’d love to have no rocks, however these little guys do add strength to the repair.
Step 4: clean up any organics now that you’ve removed all the mud. If they p**p in that area, clean it up immediately. You dont want them continuing to use the area as a bathroom and making the same mess over again. Also keep an eye on the grade and make sure it continues to stay draining away from the common areas.
Step 5: encourage plants to settle in this new area. Plant grass... ideally plant native grasses. It's going to be hard to keep the area nice, however anything with deep roots will help keep this new fixed area from getting swampy again and prevent erosion.
Don’t get me wrong… this has been made WAY easier with Clint and his expertise of equipment. I am super super lucky to have him to help with this because without machinery this would be MUCH harder. However, that being said, if you are dealing with mud and needing remediation to fix this issue, it is 200% worth renting the right equipment so you don’t break yourself trying to shovel it.
If you have questions feel free to reach out. We are trying to do the very best we can with teaching how to naturally work with the topography to make the healthiest environments for ourselves and our animals. 🥰
