All things Dairy

[som farmer]

Few too many drains running across it to venture in that deep!

we went to look at a bunch of cows today, down a long old drive, manicured, grass trimmed, ultra smart new house at the end, and some silly twit had decided to spread slurry close to the post and rail fence (new), he didn't cover the fence, but got horribly bogged down, two lovely deep ditches, hell of a mess, owner somewhat 'unhappy', right by the main road to !

 

[Rhydwen1]

What do people think about laying cow tracks without taking the soil away first, last year we dug the soil out first but cost nearly as much as putting the stone down. How deep would you lay the stone if not taking soil up? I'd rather not bother as our soils are only shallow above shale but my digger man reckons it won't be long before the stone gets pushed down and turned into mud.

 

[Cowmansam]

Digger mans right

 

[lazy farmer]

What do people think about laying cow tracks without taking the soil away first, last year we dug the soil out first but cost nearly as much as putting the stone down. How deep would you lay the stone if not taking soil up? I'd rather not bother as our soils are only shallow above shale but my digger man reckons it won't be long before the stone gets pushed down and turned into mud.

We gave up removing top soil yrs ago. It makes it easier to get water off your tracks if there above the water table and properly graded.

 

[Sid]

What do people think about laying cow tracks without taking the soil away first, last year we dug the soil out first but cost nearly as much as putting the stone down. How deep would you lay the stone if not taking soil up? I'd rather not bother as our soils are only shallow above shale but my digger man reckons it won't be long before the stone gets pushed down and turned into mud.

No top soil removed here on heavy clay ground but we had our own stone, dump trailer loads tipped up touching.
Cambered, packed with tractor pulled vibrating roller.

 

[Beef farmer]

What do people think about laying cow tracks without taking the soil away first, last year we dug the soil out first but cost nearly as much as putting the stone down. How deep would you lay the stone if not taking soil up? I'd rather not bother as our soils are only shallow above shale but my digger man reckons it won't be long before the stone gets pushed down and turned into mud.

Remove soil you need planning as its deemed a permanent structure.

 

[Happy hillbily]

I'm sure the ahdb have looked into this and was deemed unnecessary.

 

[Beef farmer]

Ours are same as sid, trailers touching and push it through with a dozer. 18 inches average. Decent camber

 

[pine_guy]

Ours are same as sid, trailers touching and push it through with a dozer. 18 inches average. Decent camber

What kind of permit/licence do you need to dig stone off your own ground?

 

[som farmer]

What kind of permit/licence do you need to dig stone off your own ground?

you don't, if used on farm. Straight from the council, they thought we were selling stone, officious nasty officials, out to do us, they had to eat humble pie family member always looking to cause trouble.

 

[vantage]

What kind of permit/licence do you need to dig stone off your own ground?

None.

 

[Rhydwen1]

Thanks for the replies, I think we'll try one stretch without removing the soil and another stretch where it'll have a little more use with machinery we'll remove the topsoil. Can't go too wrong then

 

[Martyn]

All our tracks tipped on top, two dump trailers wide, loads touching make a track 6m wide and 18" deep, goes hard like concrete.

 

[lazy farmer]

Latest track finally fenced and water pipe buried

 

[had e nuff]

View attachment 947696Latest track finally fenced and water pipe buried

Now thats a proper track

 

[Beef farmer]

All our tracks tipped on top, two dump trailers wide, loads touching make a track 6m wide and 18" deep, goes hard like concrete.

6m wide? Isn't the rule of thumb min 3 m nut then extra 1m per 100 cows? So 3m 300 5m 500 and so on?
6m tracks would be lovely job, but always short of grass..

 

[Martyn]

6m wide? Isn't the rule of thumb min 3 m nut then extra 1m per 100 cows? So 3m 300 5m 500 and so on?
6m tracks would be lovely job, but always short of grass..

I don't no but our are 6m across the farm

 

[Sid]

6m wide? Isn't the rule of thumb min 3 m nut then extra 1m per 100 cows? So 3m 300 5m 500 and so on?
6m tracks would be lovely job, but always short of grass..

Enough for 2 cows to pass on grazing robots

 

[Sparkymark]

View attachment 947696Latest track finally fenced and water pipe buried

Do you brush/scrape your concrete tracks to keep the little stones off?

 

[lazy farmer]

Do you brush/scrape your concrete tracks to keep the little stones off?

Yes. But being a heavy clay farm the only stones come from the tracks and The amount of stones reduces each time we upgrade a piece of track.
4 more January’s will see the whole lot concreted.