Drainage

Underground pipes leading to ditches at the edge of the field are laid. These pipes have small holes in the top which allow water to drain into them and away to the ditches.

It is very important for your field to drain well. Where fields are very wet it is necessary to lay underground drains. This is an expensive and time-consuming process but is generally very effective.

Many fields simply have drainage ditches around the edge of the field, which often work very well. In some cases, when there have been a lot of horses on one pasture, the soil becomes compacted to such a degree that water is unable to drain away.

This problem is usually simply solved by subsoiling, which is pulling plough shares through the subsoil to allow the water to drain again, causing very little damage to the top soil.

Another type of drainage that works well in clay soil only is mole drainage. In this case a mole plough is used to create channels for drainage approximately 3 ft (1 m) under the ground.