Agri Vehicles Insurance from Greenlands

Author Topic: Gateways!!!  (Read 3730 times)

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Gateways!!!
« on: December 06, 2020, 05:13:57 pm »
Your best solutions please, for keeping gateways and narrow ways usable in muddy weather, and when you have large and small cloven-footed beasties (sheep and cattle), as well as ponies - and wellied humans! - needing to use the route.

It's clay hereabouts, doesn't help  :-\
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

landroverroy

  • Joined Oct 2010
Re: Gateways!!!
« Reply #1 on: December 06, 2020, 05:27:31 pm »
It's too late in the year now. Best solution is to put down a load of hardcore, road planings, limestone or whatever's available. But it needs to be done in summer. Remember water finds its own level so lower places will get muddy first. So try and build the level up a bit. It'll cost a bit but should hopefully last for years.
Rules are made:
  for the guidance of wise men
  and the obedience of fools.

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Gateways!!!
« Reply #2 on: December 06, 2020, 05:49:30 pm »
It's too late in the year now. Best solution is to put down a load of hardcore, road planings, limestone or whatever's available. But it needs to be done in summer. Remember water finds its own level so lower places will get muddy first. So try and build the level up a bit. It'll cost a bit but should hopefully last for years.

Ex-BH used to put stone down in summer, but my experience was that when the ground got wet and muddy in winter, the cows' weight on their cloven feet could make it very uncomfortable for them.  Not an issue for his suckler herd, who used any given gateway infrequently, but much more of an issue for the house dairy cows who were in and out every day.

And we have the same issue here; it's the gateways we use with the dairy cows and the ponies which are the issue.

I was wondering if anyone had tried any of the hexagonal rubber matting stuff or similar, and could recommend - or recommend avoiding!

For now I think we might seek out some old carpets as a stopgap for this winter.  It's a shame to not let them out for the day when the weather and all the rest of the ground apart from the gateways is dry enough.
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

macgro7

  • Joined Feb 2016
  • Leicester
Re: Gateways!!!
« Reply #3 on: December 06, 2020, 06:39:20 pm »
How about those plastic/rubber mats with holes in them?

Something like that:
Growing loads of fruits and vegetables! Raising dairy goats, chickens, ducks, rabbits on 1/2 acre in the middle of the city of Leicester, using permaculture methods.

Womble

  • Joined Mar 2009
  • Stirlingshire, Central Scotland
Re: Gateways!!!
« Reply #4 on: December 06, 2020, 07:14:56 pm »
To this day, I still don't understand why farmers always put their gates at the muddiest part of the field, so I think the simplest answer is just to move the gateway to a non-muddy bit ;) .

However, if that doesn't work for you, I found this stuff the other day whilst looking for something else:

"All fungi are edible. Some fungi are only edible once." -Terry Pratchett

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Gateways!!!
« Reply #5 on: December 07, 2020, 01:11:42 am »
To this day, I still don't understand why farmers always put their gates at the muddiest part of the field, so I think the simplest answer is just to move the gateway to a non-muddy bit ;)

 :roflanim: :roflanim:


I had googled "cow track", more than once, and it didn't come up with the Solway product, for some reason.  I was sure I had come across it up near Hadrian's Wall.  Thanks Womble. 

Yes, it's not cheap, and we have some dips to fill in which will need hardcore and stones, but we then need to stop the stones getting in the cows' feet, without stopping the grass from regrowing, which this stuff would do.  Probably a job for next year now, as llr says, the permanent solution, but at least I know what it is I am looking for now.

And yes, SD, we have used waste hay, straw, etc in one heavy traffic spot, but it helps only a bit and not for long.  I had been wondering about putting some non-spinning fleece down and then some old carpet, for now.
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

Backinwellies

  • Global Moderator
  • Joined Sep 2012
  • Llandeilo Carmarthenshire
    • Nantygroes
    • Facebook
Re: Gateways!!!
« Reply #6 on: December 07, 2020, 11:13:31 am »
Use shale not just hardcore .... need to scape off any excess mud first then inches of shale ..... it sets hard and flat ....   sheep do however walk mud back on it in a coiuple of years!
Linda

Don't wrestle with pigs, they will love it and you will just get all muddy.

Let go of who you are and become who you are meant to be.

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shep53

  • Joined Jan 2011
  • Dumfries & Galloway
Re: Gateways!!!
« Reply #7 on: December 07, 2020, 04:00:35 pm »
Many dairy farms have concrete sleepers in gateways or tracks not much prep needed just leveling and they last for ever or a Teram base with non sharp rock on top

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Gateways!!!
« Reply #8 on: December 07, 2020, 05:01:10 pm »
Many dairy farms have concrete sleepers in gateways or tracks not much prep needed just leveling and they last for ever or a Teram base with non sharp rock on top

True.  But... at some point they have to come off the cement onto grass, and that spot gets muddy as heck very quickly.  So doesn't it just move the problem along?
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

shep53

  • Joined Jan 2011
  • Dumfries & Galloway
Re: Gateways!!!
« Reply #9 on: December 07, 2020, 07:03:30 pm »
What ever you do there will still be paddling before and after , dairy farms get round it by having as wide an opening as possible  and  tracks leading to grazing through out ,but still not always perfect which is why they come inside  , some are trying Astro turf on track ways . i asked contractors to quote for the honey comb system on my parking area but the item cost plus initial ground prep was expensive . I looked at videos of  car parking, putting the honey comb direct on to grass and rolling with a heavy roller , but the ground looked fairly dry before starting . Mini digger scrapping of the soil then rammed hardcore with Teram on top and smooth stones as the final layer would probably be the cheapest for paths .  Would the recycled plastic / rubber used on menage work for tracks ??
« Last Edit: December 07, 2020, 07:27:41 pm by shep53 »

PipKelpy

  • Joined Mar 2019
  • North Shropshire
  • Dreamer with Mary, (cow) and sheep.
Re: Gateways!!!
« Reply #10 on: December 08, 2020, 03:42:07 pm »
We're clay here as well and our gateways have been put in their places as it seemed the best place for them! I did have 1 moved last year as at the time of installation we never took into account the wet, considering it was on a bank we never thought it would be a problem! Now it's On lower ground and doesn't get wet, weird that. Similarly, a neighbouring gate (on same post) is 14ft and after Junipers escapades last year and mum "helping", it's never been the same!

I couldn't drive to roll it flat, mum "I know what I'm doing" when I told her not to go uphill, 10 minutes later, phone call "I'm stuck, bring zetor to tow me out!" Never going to happen ! Our roller is old and solid concrete and wedged tight!

Couple of hours later neighbour and manitiou with chains rescued us. Then I let him roll the bank. After all, if it's going to happen again, it may as well happen whilst help is there. Currently, gateways not too bad and all cattle and sheep just wandering . . . .
Halter train the cattle to keep them quiet but watch your back when they come a'bulling! Give them all names even those you plan to eat. Always be calm. Most importantly, invest in wellies with steel toe caps and be prepared for the clever cow who knows where the toe caps end!!

Buttermilk

  • Joined Jul 2014
Re: Gateways!!!
« Reply #11 on: December 10, 2020, 07:50:26 pm »
I have invested in mud control slabs, pricey but doing a great job so far. https://www.mudcontrol.co.uk/slabs

Kiran

  • Joined Apr 2019
Re: Gateways!!!
« Reply #12 on: March 06, 2021, 01:08:11 am »
Last year and also a bit this year I've been putting terram and geogrid under compacted stone, touch wood everything is ok at the moment. It's only been down a year mad though.


SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Gateways!!!
« Reply #13 on: March 06, 2021, 03:15:39 pm »
I have invested in mud control slabs, pricey but doing a great job so far. https://www.mudcontrol.co.uk/slabs

That's really good to know.  I was rather dubious about them - thought they would just sink without trace!  But with your recommendation I think we will get some and try them in a few gateways.  Sounds like no big deal to put them down, they're removable if required, and there doesn't look to be anything about them which would be uncomfortable for smaller feet (sheep, dogs, barefoot children....)
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

Buttermilk

  • Joined Jul 2014
Re: Gateways!!!
« Reply #14 on: March 06, 2021, 04:25:25 pm »
I have invested in mud control slabs, pricey but doing a great job so far. https://www.mudcontrol.co.uk/slabs

That's really good to know.  I was rather dubious about them - thought they would just sink without trace!  But with your recommendation I think we will get some and try them in a few gateways.  Sounds like no big deal to put them down, they're removable if required, and there doesn't look to be anything about them which would be uncomfortable for smaller feet (sheep, dogs, barefoot children....)
Cover over with sand or some such as sheep feet can go through the holes, once filled in they are no problem.

 

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