# Pasture Spreading Mulch



## carp614 (May 24, 2016)

I'm working on trying to improve some heavily grazed pasture in North Georgia. The "soil" is mostly red clay. With it being so dry at the moment the heavy traffic areas are completely lifeless. We are also trying to deal with significant erosion problems due to the inability to rotate and rest various paddocks. 

In my research for how to best address the problem I have come across several examples of people dropping mulch on pasture ground. They say it helps by introducing organic matter, improves moisture retention, and helps control erosion. 

Has anyone done this? What results did you get?

Thanks!


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## greentree (Feb 27, 2013)

Go to your county maintenance barn, and give them permission to dump the chipper shredder truck at your place. 

I have used manure from stalls to build berms to slow water runoff. Organic matter is the ONLY way to soften clay soils.


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## horselovinguy (Oct 1, 2013)

_*A word of caution....*

Make sure where ever you plan on spreading any wood mulch you are *NOT* near buildings.
Trees taken down by the local tree trimmers, now ground up may have been removed do to termite activity or carpenter ants...
If untreated and infected....
You truly do *not* want to introduce that anywhere near your home or barn structures..
Be careful...
:runninghorse2:....
_


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## natisha (Jan 11, 2011)

horselovinguy said:


> _*A word of caution....*
> 
> Make sure where ever you plan on spreading any wood mulch you are *NOT* near buildings.
> Trees taken down by the local tree trimmers, now ground up may have been removed do to termite activity or carpenter ants...
> ...


Also black walnut in the mix would be bad.


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## Prairie (May 13, 2016)

Caution----don't let anybody spread organic matter in your pasture without knowing exactly what it is composed of. Black walnut and many other plants can be toxic.


Call your soil conservation office and set up an appointment so they can advise you what to do.


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## carp614 (May 24, 2016)

Prairie said:


> Caution----don't let anybody spread organic matter in your pasture without knowing exactly what it is composed of. Black walnut and many other plants can be toxic.
> 
> 
> Call your soil conservation office and set up an appointment so they can advise you what to do.


Excellent advice. I have a relationship with the business that I've asked to help with this. The owner is a man I trust and he has assured me that his chipper output is primarily pine, poplar, sweet gum, and oak. He will not be chipping up walnut, as it is far too valuable to run through a chipper.


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## carp614 (May 24, 2016)

Prairie said:


> Caution----don't let anybody spread organic matter in your pasture without knowing exactly what it is composed of. Black walnut and many other plants can be toxic.
> 
> 
> Call your soil conservation office and set up an appointment so they can advise you what to do.


Excellent advice. I have a relationship with the business that I've asked to help with this. The owner is a man I trust and he has assured me that his chipper output is primarily pine, poplar, sweet gum, and oak. He will not be chipping up walnut, as it is far too valuable to run through a chipper.

I have no experience with soil conservation representatives, but being a Libertarian I am hesitant to have someone come out to the farm and scrutinize our practices. Will they come to help or will they come to regulate? Has anyone had any experience dealing with soil conservation reps?


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## Prairie (May 13, 2016)

Soil conservation will come to help and offer suggestions-----they are not a "policing" authority unless what you are doing is dangerous to your neighbors, like making ditches so all the runoff on your land is going to ruin their fields.


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## carp614 (May 24, 2016)

Update:
I started about a month ago spreading mulch in areas that were heavily eroded. The first priority has been to get control of the erosion problem. The mulch has greatly reduced run off from the areas where it was spread. I think it will be a good amendment in pastures and paddocks that we are going to rework, especially once it is worked into the soil. 

A few years ago rocks were dumped in the worst gullies. This has turned out to be less effective than hoped. The rocks slowed the runoff from pastures, but as these ditches filled in with silt the water started cutting new gullies next to the old ones. After some more research, I see now that the primary issue is soil compaction. To my knowledge these pastures have not been aerated in the last 20 years. The farm does not own an aerator. 

We are going to continue to work mulch into various erosion prone areas at the farm, but the priority going into planting seasons is going to be aeration.


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## carp614 (May 24, 2016)

Update: Lessons Learned

Low/Heavy traffic areas - The good news is that the mulch helps a great deal with moisture retention and adding organic material to the soil. The bad news is if those areas are high traffic areas, they get to be just as muddy as they were before the mulch. Erosion is reduced, but the mess is worse. 

Seems like the only solution for those areas is to gravel them in as proper sacrifice areas. Scrape these areas down to hard clay, then lay geotextile to prevent the gravel from mixing with the dirt and add quarter crush and M10 to lock the gravel in place.


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## Cynical25 (Mar 7, 2013)

Thanks for the update! Helps to hear real world examples, even if it's what NOT to do.


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## carshon (Apr 7, 2015)

We also have heavily grazed packed down pastures. We have had to create a sacrifice area and deal with heavy mud in the spring. We seed our pastures yearly and rotate a lot - we also limit the horses time on the pastures.

You may want to try paddock paradise grazing and see if it is an option


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