Controling Pasture flood in winter months

[tcam318]

I have 10 acres in western Washington that floods pretty good in the winter months on certain parts. I was wondering if there is any way to possibly control the flooding by planting a certain kind of grass or even making some kind of ditch to drain the water away. If some of you don't know it rains like crazy in Washington in the winter months but this also makes the soil really soft so you can hardly drive on in.

 

[branguscowgirl]

I had a ranch in Oregon. (A lot of rain there also.) The water flowed off the mountain like a huge river at times! Called it sponge mountain! Lol
We diverted water with ditches and culverts. Some flowed to a man made pond, and some to a creek. We worked with the natural slope of the land. Around structures we put in French drains to carry the water away. Ditch, French drain pipe and gravel cover.

I have a problem here also. It is all flat land, but it has a very subtle grade for flood irrigation. We develope ponds in some areas even when we irrigate. So we have placed ditches to carry excess into a pond or out to a ditch. Still working on it here, but had it pretty well controlled in Oregon.

 

[dun]

What you can do depends a lot on the water table depth. We had a place in western washington that I ditched, the ditch stayed full for months at a time and the area inside never got any drier. I finally put a big pump on it and pumped it (2" intake and 2" outlet) for a month and it didn;t make any difference.

 

[tcam318]

Well it only floods in the Winter months which is the rainy season... In the summer time the grass that grows seems to drink the water and keep it pretty dry.

 

[skyhightree1]

Plant a ton of weeping willows lol

 

[Dave]

You do like most people in Western Washington. Build a winter feeding/loafing area and keep the cattle there. That means concrete with a roof over as much of it as you can afford. Keep the cattle off the pasture until it dries up in the spring. That is a simple fact of life if you run cattle in Western Washington unless you are lucky enough to own some of the rocky prairie ground that drains well.

 

[tcam318]

Dave would you even recommend creating a ditch to get rid of the water it is flat land and I have both pond and another ditch to possibly drain to.