Wet Weather Is the Real Test of a Smallholding

A dry summer flatters any smallholding. The real exam arrives in a wet January, when the gate you have walked through a hundred times becomes a knee-deep trough of liquid clay and the hens refuse to come out of the coop. Wet weather is not just unpleasant. It costs you grass, it costs you feed, and it costs you livestock condition. The good news is that nearly everything worth doing can be done now, in a waterproof and a pair of wellies, before the next band of rain rolls in.

Work in this order: paths first, then stock, then feed, then drainage. That way, if the forecast changes you have already protected the things that are hardest to put right.

Lay Bark Paths Before the Ground Turns to Soup

The kindest thing you can do for a smallholding in winter is to decide where feet will go, and then build those routes properly. Random wandering is what turns a holding into a mud bath.

• Mark your main routes: back door to hen house, house to kitchen garden, gate to gate, and the run to the feed store. Keep them as straight and as narrow as you can manage.
• Lay a woven geotextile membrane first, then 75–100mm of bark chip or mixed woodchip on top. Bark spread straight onto bare soil will simply vanish into the mud within a fortnight.
• Edge the path with scaffold boards, half-round timber or old sleepers to stop the chip migrating into the beds.
• Top up with a barrow or two of fresh chip each autumn. It is far cheaper than reseeding a lawn that has been churned to slurry.

Keep off the beds. One walk across a wet kitchen garden compacts the soil deeper than a whole season of dry treading. If you must cross, lay down a plank and stand on that. Better still, get your raised beds and permanent beds established now so that wet-weather work happens from the path, not from the soil.

Move Livestock to High Ground

Poaching is the quiet thief of winter. Every hoofprint in saturated ground destroys the soil structure underneath it, and that paddock will be slow to recover come spring. Act before the damage, not after.

• Identify the highest, best-drained paddock on the holding and treat it as your winter stand-by. Rest it through autumn so there is some cover on it when you need it.
• Move stock earlier than feels necessary. If the ground is holding water after a morning of rain, that is your signal.
• Create a hardstanding area near the yard using compacted hardcore or hoggin. Feed, water and handle animals there and keep them off the grass entirely during the worst of it.
• Put hay racks and troughs on pallets or concrete so feed is not trampled into the mud, and move them regularly to spread the wear.
• Watch for mud fever in horses and ponies, and foot rot and scald in sheep. Dry, clean standing areas and daily foot checks do more good than any bottle of lotion.
• Give housed animals deep, dry bedding and check ventilation. Damp, stuffy sheds cause more respiratory trouble than cold ones.

If you keep pigs, remember they will plough any wet patch you give them. Rotate them onto fresh ground and accept that the old patch will need sowing in spring.

Store Feed Securely and Off the Floor

Wet weather drives rats and mice indoors, and a damp feed store grows mould that will make your stock ill. This is a job for a wet afternoon and pays for itself within a season.

• Get everything off the ground on pallets, with a clear air gap beneath and around.
• Decant sack feed into metal bins with tight-fitting lids. Rats chew plastic given half a chance, and they will chew through a paper sack in a night.
• Keep a fortnight's supply indoors at most. Buying in bulk is only a saving if it stays dry and rodent-free.
• Stack hay and straw on pallets, away from walls, with gaps between bales so air can move. Never store it against a damp north-facing wall.
• Check the store roof, gutters and door seals before the next storm. One dripping gutter above a feed bin will ruin a whole winter's worth.

Check Your Drainage Before the Next Storm

Half an hour with a spade in the dry beats a whole day of mopping up in the wet. Walk the holding with the specific aim of finding where water wants to go, then help it get there.

• Clear ditches, culverts and grips of leaves, silt and cut branches. A blocked culvert is the most common cause of a flooded yard.
• Check gullies, soakaways and land drains for standing water, and rod anything that is slow to clear.
• Make sure downpipes discharge well away from buildings and paths, and that water butts have working overflows.
• Look for low spots where water pools and either cut a shallow channel away from them or plant them up with something that tolerates wet feet.
• Keep a stock of sandbags, a spare pump and a good torch in a known, dry place.

Use the Wet Days Well

There is plenty of useful work that does not need dry ground. Clean, sharpen and oil your hand tools. Sort seed packets and place your orders. Mend hurdles and fencing. Plan next year's rotation on paper, with the wet corners of the holding marked as winter resting ground. When the rain finally lifts, you will want your time and your boots for the ground, not the shed.

Wet weather is a fact of British smallholding life. Build for it rather than fight it, and the holding will come through the winter in far better heart.