look here if you have wet/pouched/ploughed/mucked up fields. . .

NewBeefFarmer

take one of my fields for instance 4 acre rectangle, it would have a slope that would be 50% of what a normal ramp would be in a multi story.
a nice slope. .. ud never think water lodging was a problem, never has been.

but now, this is my theory,

it rains
it gets kinda soft
it rains, the hoof marks are not letting the water run completely down the hill, just small marks, from yrs ago . . land never rolled, never needed it
it gets softer
hoof marks are deeper and get deeper,
rain is now trapped more, and is visible,
now we have mud, mud is trapping water as it is.
1 day in our current weather and the land is totally water logged. and has been, and all my fields are. . . all holding water,


I have this theory, that while everyone is telling me don't roll, but get a grass harrow, .. . im 30% thinking screw the harrow, get a roller and see can I release some water. . .

drains are not what's wrong. .. im talking about a field like with a slope like slane castle. I have the highest hill for miles and its water logged up there.. .

problem we have now is that for 10 mins of rain, as its so heavy, ud want 2 days of dry to balance it out.

Manoffeeling

NewBeefFarmer wrote: »

take one of my fields for instance 4 acre rectangle, it would have a slope that would be 50% of what a normal ramp would be in a multi story.
a nice slope. .. ud never think water lodging was a problem, never has been.

but now, this is my theory,

it rains
it gets kinda soft
it rains, the hoof marks are not letting the water run completely down the hill, just small marks, from yrs ago . . land never rolled, never needed it
it gets softer
hoof marks are deeper and get deeper,
rain is now trapped more, and is visible,
now we have mud, mud is trapping water as it is.
1 day in our current weather and the land is totally water logged. and has been, and all my fields are. . . all holding water,


I have this theory, that while everyone is telling me don't roll, but get a grass harrow, .. . im 30% thinking screw the harrow, get a roller and see can I release some water. . .

drains are not what's wrong. .. im talking about a field like with a slope like slane castle. I have the highest hill for miles and its water logged up there.. .

problem we have now is that for 10 mins of rain, as its so heavy, ud want 2 days of dry to balance it out.

:eek:

NewBeefFarmer

reading back on this now, while the jist of what im talking about is there. . . . you can clearly see that ive had enough of picking my steps while seeing the cattle!. . lol

by the way, the roller is so that if the land was any ways level the water might run off, rather than sitting and adding to the problem!. . .

am I the only one who see how this can multiply and make a field worse

bbam

NewBeefFarmer wrote: »

take one of my fields for instance 4 acre rectangle, it would have a slope that would be 50% of what a normal ramp would be in a multi story.
a nice slope. .. ud never think water lodging was a problem, never has been.

but now, this is my theory,

it rains
it gets kinda soft
it rains, the hoof marks are not letting the water run completely down the hill, just small marks, from yrs ago . . land never rolled, never needed it
it gets softer
hoof marks are deeper and get deeper,
rain is now trapped more, and is visible,
now we have mud, mud is trapping water as it is.
1 day in our current weather and the land is totally water logged. and has been, and all my fields are. . . all holding water,


I have this theory, that while everyone is telling me don't roll, but get a grass harrow, .. . im 30% thinking screw the harrow, get a roller and see can I release some water. . .

drains are not what's wrong. .. im talking about a field like with a slope like slane castle. I have the highest hill for miles and its water logged up there.. .

problem we have now is that for 10 mins of rain, as its so heavy, ud want 2 days of dry to balance it out.

Yes, And no... And sort of..

You also need to think about soil type and compaction...
If like us you have a heavy clay soil then the soil is basically waterproof and holds the water up top at the best of times.. If you take the roller to this too often, particularly when its soft then you make a sort of compressed concrete type cap on your ground... now neither air nor water can enter and for some reason every damn weed under the sun loves to grow in this soil..

You hit the nail on the head regarding rainfall rates.. This is the biggest shift in climate we're seeing, rainfall condensed into torrents of rain where maybe 10% of a weeks expected rain can fall in 20 minutes.. ground is getting it harder and harder to deal with this phenomenon.

Damo810

If it's as wet as you say it is, especially if it's hilly too I think you'd be mad to go near it in the tractor, especially if cattle are still on it. All that will happen is you'l slide around for a bit, and then you'll get stuck, leave 2 big tracks that'll kindly fill up with water, and you won't see your roller for a few weeks.

We're in a similar position to you, sloped land, 350Kg bulls on it. While it wouldn't usually be a wet field, the base of the slope is destroyed. It'll need re-seeding when it dries off, and then some rolling.

Dampintheattic

Now that the ground is soft, you have a good opportunity, to bury the damn roller. Put up a headstone with he epitaph, "No Loss"

iverjohnston

If it ever dries enough to travel on, and short of reseeding completely, get some fellow with a small crawler to mole drain it. Are there any field drains neat the foot of the field, that you pull the mole out of? Getting it dry enough so that you are not doing more harm than good is the tricky bit.

Milton09

NewBeefFarmer wrote: »

get a roller and see can I release some water. . .
QUOTE]

Unfortunately this has been my approach for the last number of years. Most of my land, while quite good for growing grass does not have much soil and almost zero soakage underneath. The soil also poaches very easily because of the lack of soakage and poached land takes a lot of time to dry.

By rolling, water flows off the surface much better and when growth comes the fields dry out much much faster.

pakalasa

Cattle have been poaching ground for thousands of years. No permanent damage, despite what some people would tell ya.
i think more damage has been done with the demise of the dung beetle, but that's a whole other topic. I remember seen the little guys when I was young. Haven't seen one in years. What's killed them? Ivomec, slurry, artificial fertiliser.

satstheway

Your theory is correct if you have heavy stock. We have the same problem.
got a chain harrow couple Years ago and was skeptical of its usefulness and Father is a roller all the way man but I have used it recently on dry ground around gates and drinkers and it will level poached ground easily when dry better than a roller.
But after this week I will be able to try it on a larger section that we took cattle in from today its pretty bad and soaking but on a 10-15° slope but I'll have to wait till its crispy dry. Can't put cattle out on good ground at min up here unless u put life jackets on them

just do it

pakalasa wrote: »

Cattle have been poaching ground for thousands of years. No permanent damage, despite what some people would tell ya.
i think more damage has been done with the demise of the dung beetle, but that's a whole other topic. I remember seen the little guys when I was young. Haven't seen one in years. What's killed them? Ivomec, slurry, artificial fertiliser.

Your onto something there. Biodiversity has decreased and a lot of the little critters helped open up tiny channels improve the soil structure. The earthworm in particular is important and old fashioned manure was a big help to both him and soil structure.

yellow50HX

anyone ever use a rib roller on grass land? the ribs should be able to roll any humps while still leaving areas for the air to go in?, woul done of those spiked aerators do the same job?