Mud in Front of the Barn issues

[jaxs]

If you are buying feed at a full service feed dealer,they sell a bagged product called "Pen Pro" that will help. Same product is marketed as "Diamond Dry" for baseball fields.

 

[radioman]

I dunno -- it all depends on what you have on hand right now or what you can get free or cheap. wood chips will help for a year maybe 2. Might buy you time till dry season to do it right with gravel or better method. dumping gravel on already water absorbed mud? Around here its claylike and gravel dumped on clay will be soft and squishy for awhile til the next season change. maybe its the same in your area?
What do you have around you that you could use ? gravel? washed stones? sand? chips?

 

[s219]

My solution to most surface mud problems is gravel, mainly because it's cheap, easy, and almost always works. #57 strikes a good balance between drainage, surface area (won't sink too easily), and walking comfort. I use #3 when it's real bad or when there is vehicle traffic, but that is difficult to walk on. Sometimes I'll layer it, with #3 on the bottom then something like #78 or #8 on top. #78 and #8 is about pea sized, but jagged pieces (granite around here).

 

[EddieWalker]

Thank you for all the great replies. I'm kind of leaning to laying down a landscaping fabric and then a layer of river rock. I'm nervous about smaller rock and an issue with the goats, and river rock is the cheapest that they sell. For some reason, there is no tax on it.

The picture shows that it is just surface mud. It's not even an inch deep, it's just super slippery.

 

[ultrarunner]

Ouch. Locally gravel is $9 a ton plus delivery. Delivery is around $100 a truck load. Maybe a little more for a big truck. I still think that’s expensive.

Yep... aggregate is real expensive here... for the cost of one yard delivered in the SF Bay Area I can get 5 yards tailgated in Olympia WA...

 

[EarPlug]

I don't like the river rock. Being round in shape it does not lock in place. The it gets coated with dirt and gets wet you have slippery rocks.

 

[ustmd]

I vote for the gravel--I have done similar at our place and it worked out well.

 

[rgr33]

I had the same problem with cattle entering the barn Eddie. I tried gravel wood chips more dirt, a lot more,even landscape timbers, nothing lasted very long, and the problem came right back.

This is the best solution I finally came up with. I removed all the mud as soon as the weather improved, then improved drainage a bit with drain pipe. I had access to a supply of broken up concrete chunks from an old driveway tear out, on top of that, I used 2 inch drain rock, and then some driveway gravel to fill the voids. I used railroad ties to contain all ‘tis, so it would’t Migrate away.

A lot of work, but mostly tractor work, which I enjoy. It wasn’t a perfect solution, but it lasted a long time by cattle slop standards

And finally, my 100% solution was to get out of the farm animal business, and grow wine grapes, which has it’s own issues, but no vet bills or manure shoveling to deal with.

 

[GirlWhoWantsTractor]

I see the area appears to be covered, so where is the water coming from?

All those little footprints allow the water to collect, so that's part of the problem. And the animal droppings help make it super-slick. Fencing the animals out will solve two of those problems. A pic showing the grade of the whole area would help.

 

[dragoneggs]

I don't like the river rock. Being round in shape it does not lock in place. The it gets coated with dirt and gets wet you have slippery rocks.

Ditto...