Getting concerned

[quattro]

Here have measured 200 mm including the 20mm yesterday in period 23 September to November 3rd. And in those 40 days only had 9 days without some rain falling. Those 40 days coinciding with the exact period for sowing autumn cereals. Local long term annual average rainfall is 580mm. So a third of the annual average rainfall in 40 days bang when want to sow winter wheat and barley.

While some river drainage maintenance possibly due any amount of dredging would not have prevented soil saturation on clay soils with the exceptional amounts and periodicity of rainfall in South Lincolnshire in the past 40 days.

We had a 100mm from Friday morning to 6 Saturday night!!

 

[Wombat]

We had a 100mm from Friday morning to 6 Saturday night!!

What’s the drainage or soil conditions/terrain like to take that?

The only way we could cope with 1m+ rainfall a year would be to spend 100K+ on drainage

 

[quattro]

Soil very waterlogged at moment but with a lot of ground sloping one direction or another a lot just runs of when the ground is sodden
some w barley is starting yellowing on headlands
I’ve some free draining fields that dry out quickly

 

[bankrupt]

The only way we could cope with 1m+ rainfall a year would be to spend 100K+ on drainage

We've spent rather more than that.

 

[Wombat]

We've spent rather more than that.

That would be on top of what we already have, i have a quote to do another 20 acres sat on my desk but as we have nothing drilled i am not sure i want to splash out 21k at the moment so it will have to wait

 

[bankrupt]

I asked for a bit of rain back in early June!

So did I, and we got some.

Now just need to carry forward 30-35% of 2019 into 2020 without ever having suggested it on an open forum.

 

[bankrupt]

i have a quote to do another 20 acres sat on my desk

Same here, Wombat,

Drainage is now horrendously expensive, mainly due to the cost of stone, which has gone from £2 to £22/tonne, mainly because of the quarry levy and the increased Excise Duty and VAT on DERV.

 

[turbo]

Here have measured 200 mm including the 20mm yesterday in period 23 September to November 3rd. And in those 40 days only had 9 days without some rain falling. Those 40 days coinciding with the exact period for sowing autumn cereals. Local long term annual average rainfall is 580mm. So a third of the annual average rainfall in 40 days bang when want to sow winter wheat and barley.

While some river drainage maintenance possibly due any amount of dredging would not have prevented soil saturation on clay soils with the exceptional amounts and periodicity of rainfall in South Lincolnshire in the past 40 days.

If you have nothing to do today measure how much water it takes to fill your bath?then empty it and fill it half full with soil and then try to get the same amount of water in it,I can guarantee you will have a wet floor. Yes we have had a lot of rain but the well on the farm is still very low and if you dig down with a 360 you don’t have to go deep before you hit dry soil but most of the outfall of drains are under water because the ea rivers are so high and just backing the water up the dykes

 

[Renaultman]

The benefit of attending church! Pity I asked for a bit of rain back in early June!

Proving, yet again, the age old adage 'be careful what you wish for'

 

[Wombat]

Proving, yet again, the age old adage 'be careful what you wish for'

I ask for 2 months of 30deg every summer but we never seem to get it.

 

[Hindsight]

If you have nothing to do today measure how much water it takes to fill your bath?then empty it and fill it half full with soil and then try to get the same amount of water in it,I can guarantee you will have a wet floor. Yes we have had a lot of rain but the well on the farm is still very low and if you dig down with a 360 you don’t have to go deep before you hit dry soil but most of the outfall of drains are under water because the ea rivers are so high and just backing the water up the dykes

We will disagree to an extent over this and I do not intend falling out on a silly forum even more especially as we do not know each other, so maybe you are right.

I appreciate your comments. Same was said about the Sedgemoor drain during the Somerset Floods. And locally others have commented same. And I am not totally in disagreement that more cleansing of local main arterial drainage systems, particularly some strategic pinch point locations, might get water moved quicker downstream, where I suspect at moment it would flood someone else! I am at 90 metres, not sure the guys eight miles away at 4 metres would like our water any quicker than it is going at the moment!

The quantity of water falling over such a period is main issue, in my view, not the arterial drainage system. And on several farms and fields I note the internal ditch system is more clogged than the EA / IDB arterial system. And to an extent that and the standard of underdrainage on many fields is possibly a good thing or even more water would be moving off fields into the arterial drain and river system.

Water will take some months to percolate to depth - even though we assume it goes straight down cracks. Only if sink holes into limestone will access quickly. So just 40 days of this rain so far. I would think you well will fill gradually over several months.

I had better return to lifting leaves off the lawn.

 

[som farmer]

We will disagree to an extent over this and I do not intend falling out on a silly forum even more especially as we do not know each other, so maybe you are right.

I appreciate your comments. Same was said about the Sedgemoor drain during the Somerset Floods. And locally others have commented same. And I am not totally in disagreement that more cleansing of local main arterial drainage systems, particularly some strategic pinch point locations, might get water moved quicker downstream, where I suspect at moment it would flood someone else! I am at 90 metres, not sure the guys eight miles away at 4 metres would like our water any quicker than it is going at the moment!

The quantity of water falling over such a period is main issue, in my view, not the arterial drainage system. And on several farms and fields I note the internal ditch system is more clogged than the EA / IDB arterial system. And to an extent that and the standard of underdrainage on many fields is possibly a good thing or even more water would be moving off fields into the arterial drain and river system.

Water will take some months to percolate to depth - even though we assume it goes straight down cracks. Only if sink holes into limestone will access quickly. So just 40 days of this rain so far. I would think you well will fill gradually over several months.

I had better return to lifting leaves off the lawn.

part of the problem on the somerset levels, is due to it having a large catchment area, by the time you account for the immediate run off from the M5, and the massive housing estate of Taunton, Bridgewater, Langport, etc, together with the mismanagement of the drainage ditches, lack of dredging, and more importance attached to voles badgers etc, you soon see why there are problems,

 

[rob1]

not sure its not better off still in the bag, looking at a few bits round here that are up they look very sorry for themselves, not sure the few acres I have drilled will ever make the surface

 

[Andy12345]

part of the problem on the somerset levels, is due to it having a large catchment area, by the time you account for the immediate run off from the M5, and the massive housing estate of Taunton, Bridgewater, Langport, etc, together with the mismanagement of the drainage ditches, lack of dredging, and more importance attached to voles badgers etc, you soon see why there are problems,

The catchment area for the river yeo and parret is huge and added to that the lack of dredging for many years which caused the problems a few years ago!

 

[turbo]

We will disagree to an extent over this and I do not intend falling out on a silly forum even more especially as we do not know each other, so maybe you are right.

I appreciate your comments. Same was said about the Sedgemoor drain during the Somerset Floods. And locally others have commented same. And I am not totally in disagreement that more cleansing of local main arterial drainage systems, particularly some strategic pinch point locations, might get water moved quicker downstream, where I suspect at moment it would flood someone else! I am at 90 metres, not sure the guys eight miles away at 4 metres would like our water any quicker than it is going at the moment!

The quantity of water falling over such a period is main issue, in my view, not the arterial drainage system. And on several farms and fields I note the internal ditch system is more clogged than the EA / IDB arterial system. And to an extent that and the standard of underdrainage on many fields is possibly a good thing or even more water would be moving off fields into the arterial drain and river system.

Water will take some months to percolate to depth - even though we assume it goes straight down cracks. Only if sink holes into limestone will access quickly. So just 40 days of this rain so far. I would think you well will fill gradually over several months.

I had better return to lifting leaves off the lawn.

I understand what you are saying but most of the main rivers empty into the sea and provided the gates work correctly should be able to let a lot of water go at low tide and then the pumps should cope in the time between the low tide. I am lead to believe that the river at wainfleat the lock gates were silted up so couldn’t be opened to relive the pressure further up stream but the ea are not fit for purpose anymore and is run by people that have no idea how to manage water

 

[D14]

Are you suggesting we all have a high fixed cost ploughing system so we can get drilled up in the really bad seasons? This is 3rd really bad one since 2000 according to father.

Can’t plough anything round here. Far to wet to travel. If we could plough then there’s no drill in the world that could drill into it.
Can’t even spin seed onto the stubbles and then Harrow in unless we had a 24m springtine and a 800hp Big Bud tractor to pull it. Out of the tramlines and our Polaris ranger gets stuck.

 

[warksfarmer]

We will fudge it in if need be. We did so in 2011/2012 and wheat is a remarkable plant. It’ll do 3t/ac with a minimal spend and shocking seedbed. Rather have 3t which could be worth £250/t this time next year than a shed load of spring barley.
just tailor your spend accordingly and accept your crops will look crap.

 

[DRC]

Had a ride round the neighbourhood this morning, and the only drilling done is folks that have plough combi systems, or min till that was done very early . Anyone that’s worked ground ready for min till or my neighbour with a Claydon, hasn’t managed anything unfortunately.

 

[Hindsight]

I understand what you are saying but most of the main rivers empty into the sea and provided the gates work correctly should be able to let a lot of water go at low tide and then the pumps should cope in the time between the low tide. I am lead to believe that the river at wainfleat the lock gates were silted up so couldn’t be opened to relive the pressure further up stream but the ea are not fit for purpose anymore and is run by people that have no idea how to manage water

1 - yes, I too gathered that lack of maintenance work meant the Wainfleet gates could not be fully opened.

2 - I do not know about the sea outfalls but are you sure they all have pumps? Welland at Spalding does not I think? Witham at Boston? Glen at Surfleet. South Forty Foot Back Sluice not sure how many of the pumps work now? I am not familiar with the water flowing out into the Trent but does Fosse River and the other carriers discharging to the Trent have pumps? River Ancholme? Hobhole is a pump and tidal system. Maud Foster - not sure. Coastal marsh drains am not sure if rely solely on low tide discharge or have pump assisted. Interesting topic.

3 I did a rough calculation, but do check my arithmetic. Lincolnshire area is 7000 square kilometres. A square km is 100 hectares. 25mm rain is 250 cubic metres hectare. So in past 42 days with 200mm rain the county has received 1.4 billion cubic metres/tonnes of water. Some will percolate into the limestone and chalk but a lot of the rest will have to drain away.

With all the will in the world and loads of river dredging going to take a few days for it to get past the Grand Sluice in Boston and other sea discharge points!! Add to that the Welland takes a lot of water from Counties upriver.

Best wishes.

 

[Bossfarmer]

We will fudge it in if need be. We did so in 2011/2012 and wheat is a remarkable plant. It’ll do 3t/ac with a minimal spend and shocking seedbed. Rather have 3t which could be worth £250/t this time next year than a shed load of spring barley.
just tailor your spend accordingly and accept your crops will look crap.

£250/t? youll be lucky if its £150, very lucky