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Stop the run-off and you stop the flood
Empty a 2000 gall tank in a normal grazing field and the water runs a long way before soaking in. Do the same on more porus ground and it travels no more than 20 yards
before getting absorbed. Some land is more easily 'saturated' than
others. It depends on the soil make up and just as importantly, what's
happened to that soil. If its grassland which has been grazed and
driven over by tractors, harvesters and had slurry and muck spread on it, the chances are the surface is compacted. If in addition the soil has
a significant amount of clay in it, the surface can be reasonably
impermeable, which means it is quickly 'saturated'. Go into a corner
of the same field where there's been no traffic, and the structure is quite
different. It's not been squashed down.
Compacted grazing land can be made more porous with a simple aerator or
spiking machine. The holes go through the hard surface and let the
roots breathe.
The Mike Donovan aerator that saved the day when the rain came
How it stopped the stream from being polluted
I made a machine to do this in 1989, two years before starting
Practical Farm Ideas magazine. In 1991 or 92 we had plastered a field
with slurry prior to ploughing and reseeding. No sooner was the
spreader out of the field than it started to rain. It got heavier and
heavier during the next day. The field sloped quite steeply down to an
even steeper strip of wood and into a stream, and the Water board kept
a quality monitor a mile or so down stream. When I looked at the field
from the other side of the valley the surface was like a mirror.
It
was, as the expert would say 'saturated'. I didn't know what to do,
but knew there was a huge fine if the slurry was washed into the
stream, so I hooked the home made aerator on the tractor, and started
going across the slope, starting at the bottom. Before finishing it I
had to leave off and go and milk the cows, and, back at the yard,
looked across at the field. The part which I had done didn't shine at
all, yet the section above was still a mirror. I went back and
finished the field and then went over the lower part for a second
time. The tractor sank in the ground more this time, as the rainwater
had been allowed to seep in.
I never had a call from the Water Board. A week later I tried to
plough it as intended. The tractor skidded all over the place, the ground
still saturated. After a further week of drying out the job was done.
It showed me that grassland which has been aerated holds water well.
So when it rains continuously, the more water stays where it falls. It
doesn't instantly start running off to the ditch.
The added benefit is that grassland production is increased.That
extra water takes nutrients with it, and feeds the roots. You get better production. Silage quantity increased appreciably after I started using the home made machine.
Fertiliser company reps are more sceptical about the benefits, yet years ago I came across some work done at Aberystywyth which proved that the technique is beneficial, and
raised grass production by around 30% and more, but the report was
never widely published.
There's a commercial aerator made by Glenside, which won a Silver RASE
Award this year, which was presented at the Royal Show. Other machines
have been made by Browns, and maybe Ritchie as well, but none have been
good sellers. Maybe farmers have difficulty in trusting logic and common sense. I would have done as well, apart from
the fact I saw how to make my own machine for just £200.
Much of upland Britain, the catchment area which gathers the rain water
that causes the flooding, is grassland. If a high proportion of this
was 'aerated' annually the quantity of rainwater it absorbs would be
increased, maybe by as much as 30 - 50%, perhaps even more.
I featured the home made aerator in the first issue of Farm Ideas, Vol 1, Issue 1. You can order the copy from here: http://www.farmideas.co.uk/online_shop.php?category=6
Quite rightly, the Minister, Hilary Benn, is taking evidence to see how future
flooding can be controlled and better managed. Maybe he should be
looking at this as well.
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