New Farm Roadway

Viewtodiefor

Hi guys looking for yer tips on farm roadways. I'm going to put in new roadway rearrange paddocks move a ditch or two for a 70 cow herd, any advice re sizes,water pipe size, entrances toppings slopes and what and when I can do it re dept ag restrictions would be appreciated, I know if I knock a ditch I must replace.

blue5000

Just on the water, if you can lay the pipes out in a big loop so that the trough is fed from two sides, use inch pipe if the pressure is bad go bigger, put the troughs half way along a dividing fence so you can block graze with temporary fence reels at the trough, go for a big trough as well.

Old thread here somewhere on roadways. http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=76438706

quietsailor

Viewtodiefor wrote: »

Hi guys looking for yer tips on farm roadways. I'm going to put in new roadway rearrange paddocks move a ditch or two for a 70 cow herd, any advice re sizes,water pipe size, entrances toppings slopes and what and when I can do it re dept ag restrictions would be appreciated, I know if I knock a ditch I must replace.

Here's the Journal article from the link in the post above.

I'm not a farmer but worked for a contracting family that ran 4 farms and did most of their own work so a few of the ideas they had were:

1. What machinery do you think will be travelling on it? Depending on the machinery type you'll need to have heavier foundations and wider roads.
Light machinery - light tractors/quads/cars
Medium machinery - bale silage machinery, hedgecutters, slurry spreading
Heavy machinery - pit silage trailers

2. Also more than likely you'll have a mower travelling on it at some stage - a bare 10' wide road will result in posts being knocked at corners, wire fences pulled/broken etc.

3. Is there going to be bale trailers on it - a 25' bale trailer requires a very large entrance off even a 12' road.

4. Loop the water line if posible, put in a few isolation valves so if you get a leak you can isolate the leak but still feed water to the trough. (in a perfect world but might be uneconomical)

On one farm that got levelled and upgraded after purchase we put extra large troughs halfway along the fence line so it fed 2 paddocks and if either paddock was being temporary divided you just clipped the temp fence whichever side of the trough had the cattle - that way 2 paddocks could become 4 smaller paddocks

5. We also thought of putting in "gaps" at the end of paddock so if silage was being cut on a couple of paddock alongside each other the "gap" was opened and the mover cut the headland swarths along all (for example) 3 paddocks as one headland rather than 3 individual headlands - in dry weather those gaps can be used as a 2nd road for the empty silage trailers so trailers aren't parked waiting for the road to empty.
The "gaps" were a 2nd straining post, 30-35' in from the ditch that took the main strain and then post(s) in the 30' space left and the wire was on a handle rather than a strainer so it could be easily opened.
Again this is a "nice to have it" idea - I worked for a contractor so he had his own machinery and we were working and getting paid anyway (we weren't an extra labour cost) so if it was a dry day in the spring - out you go and fence, wet day - stay in the workshop and strip a baler

Good luck with the roadway