Dirt Moving best impliment to level a paddock

[855ROOKIE]

Boys and Girls..

Being a true and total tractor rookie (never even sat on one until I bought one 10 months ago.) I was a total city slicker. I am now learning the in's and out's..sort of.

I have a very muddy horse paddock that pools water. When things dry out a bit I would like to find some way to level off the ground and try to prevent this kind of pooling next fall and spring.
Riding a 1995 JD 855 that serves me well..

Q. Any suggestions as to what kind of 3 point implement I should use for the job ?

 

[Johndeere3720]

Boys and Girls..

Being a true and total tractor rookie (never even sat on one until I bought one 10 months ago.) I was a total city slicker. I am now learning the in's and out's..sort of.

I have a very muddy horse paddock that pools water. When things dry out a bit I would like to find some way to level off the ground and try to prevent this kind of pooling next fall and spring.
Riding a 1995 JD 855 that serves me well..

Q. Any suggestions as to what kind of 3 point implement I should use for the job ?

Either a box blade or a rear angle blade. Box blade would be better because you can pull and push material and still level by tilting it back and back dragging the area. :thumbsup:

 

[AKfish]

Either of the mentioned implements will do the job. Or a landplane, possibly.

One question that you should answer before buying a new/used attachment for the purpose of filling and leveling a low area is - will you need to haul in additional material or can you "borrow" the needed fill from higher ground adjacent to the low spot?

If you plan to "borrow" the dirt from adjacent ground, you'll need to break it up and move it. A box blade is a better tool for that type of work.

If you'll haul in the needed material - a rear blade would do very well to level up and spread the dirt. Or if the amount/area is not too large - you could use your front-end loader - if you have one. I fill and back-blade my road and driveway quite often with just my loader.

A landplane works very well with loose material, too. But it's not the ideal attachment if you've got pretty big mounds of dirt to move and level up.

AKfish

 

[Army grunt]

I agree a box blade to move enough fill to the padlock area then use pull lawn airreater(cant spell it, the roller that pokes holes in the ground)an chained behind that pull a wooden pallet weighted down with a few cement blocks,on the front of the pallet fix a 2x6 8ft long this will do the leveling an hole thing will keep the ground from getting hard, I did this when building my flying field years ago. In my case i used sand to do the finish coating.As you pull you'll see by going back in a cris cross pattern it will take an leave as needed Go slowly it takes time,but trust me it works great, an very cheap.
Army Grunt

 

[Phineas7]

I have a box blade with a hydraulic top link that has been great for such jobs. Being able to adjust the BB angle allows me to change from scrapping off a little or a lot to depositing a little or a lot on the fly on the same run.

I used this technique for setting up a carport pad with a slight run off grade and for leveling an area for a swimming pool.

I was new to tractors also. The carport was my very first project and was the motivation to get the tractor to start with. I had never used one before.

You can see along the back where the retaining wall is going up, what the grade used to be.

It turned out like this.

In the back yard, I built another retaining wall and a flat spot for an 18' pool.

 

[Todd NE WY]

If you are a rookie I would look at something with guide wheels on it. Either a rear blade or if the material is loose enough a landscape rake, if its not loose then a box blade with rippers to loosen then something with guide wheels. It is scarey easy to make a level surface with guide wheels and it is equally as easy to make a real mess with a 3 pt implement without them.

Todd

 

[dmay]

Boys and Girls..

Being a true and total tractor rookie (never even sat on one until I bought one 10 months ago.) I was a total city slicker. I am now learning the in's and out's..sort of.

I have a very muddy horse paddock that pools water. When things dry out a bit I would like to find some way to level off the ground and try to prevent this kind of pooling next fall and spring.
Riding a 1995 JD 855 that serves me well..

Q. Any suggestions as to what kind of 3 point implement I should use for the job ?

Welcome.

Funny you ask 'cause I just got my tractor dirty last night trying to level my horse paddock after a winter of heavy horse use.

What soil do you have? Note I have heavy clay soil. Ground was still soft (wet) in spots so was a traction challenge. The horse created lunar landscape and heavy clay wet soil conditions was too severe for my 2320 to pull any 3pt implement effectively. I ended up using my FEL bucket to back drag the lunar landscape into the beginnings of a more level condition. You have so much more torque in reverse gear and with front tires just off the ground enough weight on the bucket to level the clay. Much more work to do. Eventually once I get it level I will maintain with my landscape rake.

 

[MMagis]

Here’s a link to anther thread. My suggestion is on the second page. Though it seems like you could slope the water away, it seldom works.

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/projects/204539-horse-paddock-drainage-clay.html

 

[whistlepig]

I would have a load of fill dirt dumped and use the FEL to fill in the low places and back drag it. Have some extra dirt available so you can do some touch up work the next time it rains.

 

[lager1829]

The box blade is the way to go. One thing you may want to consider is putting a layer of wood chips down in your paddock. I have done that for the past several years and the mud factor has been minimal. Search for "horse carpet" or "playground mulch". Put down a 4 to 6 inch layer and mud should not be an issue.

 

[critter986]

You could put sand down and then mulch over it. That would allow the water to drain through the sand.

 

[855ROOKIE]

Thanks for the suggestions folks..

The Moon is a good analogy. Except it is a very wet and very muddy Moon. The mud is literally a foot deep in spots. The paddock is about 90 x 200 ft. With some gentle roll to it. When we moved in it had not been used in quite some time and it was turf covered and had been maintained. The barn is a about 22x30 containing 2 stalls a tack room and a 3rd stall with a 10ft sliding door opening into the paddock. We use this "3rd Stall" as a sort of run in. The ground in front of this sliding door is brutal. Total muck and has dropped below the threshold of the barn door. This is probably the lowest spot in the paddock as well. This is where the deepest mud is from the traffic it receives. I have had suggestions of filling it with wood chips or pea gravel etc. to build it back up. Which I will do. I just need to find a way to not let it get so bad again and levelling the ground a bit is where I plan to start. I'm afraid of doing it and watching the fill disapear into the mud again.
The paddock is still too wet to even contemplate taking my turf tire JD into for fear of it not coming out again.

Can you do me a favour ? When you speak of these implements can you give me an idea what they are ? I have no idea...really. Also, How do they get loaded onto the 3 point ? These things Im sure are pretty heavy ??

By the way I am on a 24 hp JD 855 with a 3 point hitch and it does have a FEL .

 

[sweettractors]

This implement may work well. Ken Sweet

New 6 ft Track, Arena and Pulverizer Maintainece Tool | eBay

 

[Johndeere3720]

There are actually a lot of things you can try to minimize mud. My grandpa put in hog fuel several years ago (it was a 4' thick layer) and it held up very well for many years with a major amount of horse traffic (78 horses on 4 acres). Another thing that my Dad has tried is pit run and a 1'-6" thick layer of hog fuel which held up pretty well for a few years but turned to slop in the end of year two. This last winter I went in with the 3720 (we had the whole area in 1' of deep mud which i estimate to be around 60'x90') and i just spent several hours on the 3720 (wishing I had a steering knob) scooping and dumping the mud/manure into three big piles. Why did I do that? It gets the mud off the ground, having it in a pile means it is less likely to be disturbed, having it in a pile is a much smaller foot print, and we plan to spread the manure/mud in the pasture this summer when the ground dries up. It is great for the pasture, you can fill in holes, level areas better, it will be great for the grass, and it involes more seat time. :thumbsup: I Also have tried gravel in some spots and put a thin layer of hog fuel on top and that held up very well, i was actually surprized how well it worked out. I've attached a few pictures to give you an idea. The last is my grandpa's hog fuel pasture, you can see the gravel which is right in front of the gate.

 

[whistlepig]

Are sacrifice pasture is next to our barn also but we don't allow daily horse traffic close the barn. We keep them at least ten feet from all sides of the barn with electric fence. Of course if you are using your barn for the horses to get out of the weather that's not possible.

 

[dmay]

The implements everyone is talking about are 3pt implements. To see and learn about the different implements Everything Attachments has some excellent videos to watch:

How To Video Demos - Implements & Attachments

To aid in not getting stuck in the mud, get yourself some chains to go on your rear turf tires. They work in mud and snow.

DUO-Grip tire chains for farm tractors

For your high traffic horse areas you will need to level the ground then I suggest you put a geotextile driveway fabric down to separate your dirt base and top drainage material. The geotextile driveway fabric is similar to garden landscape cloth just much heavier material available in 14 ft wide rolls. This way the materials will not mix together, degrade and you see your time and investment dissappear.

Get some practice using your FEL/bucket. You can accomplish a lot of ground levelling with just your bucket. Here is a video that shows what I mean:

YouTube - John Deere 2320 blaze a new trail in 5 minutes

 

[855ROOKIE]

Thanks guys for ALL your help and suggestions..

Is there a unit available like a fast hitch for my 855's 3 point hitch ?


Ive been looking on you tube and have seen some pretty interesting implements.

It crossed my mind to try tilling the paddock to eliminate the deep hoof holes in the dirt/mud and also help it dry faster ..then start to level it off with another piece of equipment such as suggested or even a power "Harley" rake. or the pulverizer and blade you have suggested. Then find some way to compact it until I can get some kind of base in there....whatch think ? Am I making things more difficult then it needs to be ?

You guys have cme up with some great stuff so far..THANKS

 

[dmay]

Is there a unit available like a fast hitch for my 855's 3 point hitch ?

John Deere calls their's an iMatch quick hitch. In Canada, Princess Auto carrys the Speeco Quick Hitch.

It crossed my mind to try tilling the paddock

If you have a tiller, go for it.

Then find some way to compact it

Back dragging your FEL bucket is a good way to compact.

 

[SGBotsford]

Lager, there is a risk with wood chips. If there is no drainage, the wood chips soak up water, and seem to never dry out. The action of the horses churn up a mess of chips and wood.

If you want to do this, I would suggest creating a drainage plane: Bring enough soil in that the corral is higher in the center, and slope it down hill right to (or beyond) the edges. Doesn't have to be much slope 1" in 10 feet is enough. Pack that as hard as you can, then put your chips down.

Even doing this, you will likely need several batches of chips.

 

[chickenman]

how many horses use the paddock, and for how long?