by Aust 23 Comments
FIX YOUR MUD PROBLEM!
Mud is not good for livestock.
Wet conditions carry disease.
Deep mud can injure animals from pulling muscles to causing infections such as mastitis.
We had a big mud problem at our homestead.
Our barn was located at the bottom of a hill, where all the water on the whole property ran.
Our cows spend the winder in our fenced in paddocks so we can feed and water them.
Unfortunately this means that they are standing in the low spot, causing more mud problems.
We decided this year to fix the mud problem using heavy traffic pads or heavy use area.
The fix to mud is simple.
- Take a roll of geotextile fabric, roll it out.
- Place a layer 6″ of larger gravel. We used 6inch and minus stone.
- On top of the larger gravel place a 3″ layer of 2″ gravel.
- If you have livestock that will be walking on it often you will want to top dress it with sand or small pea gravel so that larger animals don’t bruise their hoofs.
Reader Interactions
Comments
Lism saysYou can get the same effect by dragging the area till it’s rock hard, laying the membrane, and dumping repurposed shingles that were shredded. Cheaper, easier, less chance of injury. The sun will melt them into a solid sheet if not I your area, if not a propane hand torch will
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- will Roland says
Came here to say that
Much cheaper given today’s costs for gravel. I’ve got a buddy hookup and still paying $450 a load for chirt.Reply
- Leon says
With that, there may still be the problem of drainage, don’t you think.
- Aust says
Nope no problem with Drainage!
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- Esther says
This means you’ll keep on adding rayers one after the other creating more problems
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- Linda Dove-Newbury says
Would love to see more
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- Dana says
We use stone dust/blue stone (very tiny gravel) that packs tight and hard for our barnyard. As long as you keep manure and hay cleaned off, it lasts for years!
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- Gabriel Chandler says
I also recommend french drains in 3/4 minus rock. Depending on the lay of the land, they can be under the drain/gutter line, or at the end of the paddock, if your land slopes.
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- Renae says
The part I don’t like about using all rock is unless you are cleaning daily with manure fork, you would keep taking rock. So what are you doing for manure maintenance? Is this in your sacrifice pen?
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- Aust says
Yes, manuer matienence is a big issue with these pads, we try to not keep the livestock on them for an extended period of time, rather we keep them in the field as much as possible and when they dirty the pads we do have to maintain them!
- RozLynn Perez says
Hi! So we just did one with 3/4 inch stone and the. compacted it. But we have sheep, goats, alpacas and pigs. So should we top dress it with sand? I can already see their droppings get stuck in it, I foolishly thought it wasn’t an issue but THEN I saw your video. Very informative. I could compact sand I between it?
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- Aust says
Hi Rozlynn, if you can afford sand, YES! It would be much better to clean sand than gravel! You will have to clean the manure regularly, otherwise the drainage will suffer!
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- Guy kellerman says
Been looking for a solution for sometime , we have sheep and its a swamp in there winter and spring. Where do I get geotextile fabric ?
Thanks a million for this info.Reply
- Guy kellerman says
Please contact me as to where I can get the geotextile fabric
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- Sharon says
Geotextile fabric is at garden centers and big box stores
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- CHRISTINE Graham says
Have this a lot in Florida however we put large quantities of tree mulch from cleaning pasture which has a pond we dug a French drain co vered whith water or silt cloth then got rubber crumbles from recycled rubber it even in stalls the covered with saw dust
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- Kris Lara says
We used shale , it becomes like cement. We can clean with a skid loader.
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- John Hosch says
I’m planning a hog pen and always imagined I would need to concrete it.
Any suggestions?
Note: I’m an broken down ol’fart, so ease of maintenance is a primary concern.
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- Aust says
John, concrete is great with hogs! Much better than gravel. Make sure to slant it down so when you hose it off the water runs off it, and recess your fencing into the concrete so the pigs cant get out!
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- Johnette Beaver says
My concern with all of this packed hard gravel is how is it on the hooves of the animals your keeping on it and doesn’t it ice up and become slippery in winter creating a completely new set of issues. Seems to me that removing 8 to 10” possibly 12 inches or more or soil material, putting down a heavy duty geothermal material then 6 inches of gravel, packing it down, another layer of geothermal material and 6/8 inches of rubber mulch covered with 4/6 inches of sand. This would provide water drainage, soft underfoot of the animals and easy to maintain. You would probably have to top off the sand periodically but the end result would also help with ice, snow as well. You must however no matter what you do put the geothermal/Landscping material down first t prevent migration of whatever you choose to lay down or you will be wasting a lot of money as heater you put down will eventually and rather quickly just keep going down into the earth never to be seen again.
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- Aust says
I actually think if I redid these I would 100% use sand on top as it would be easier to clean! Everything the same, then top dress with sand.
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- Johnette Beaver says
Geotextile not geothermal. Thank you spell check for making more mistakes than I do 🤣
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- Trent says
Our family farm has been going from 70 some years and we have not had a cow slit and fall on mud we just let it go be it will be fine
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