Is waterlogging of farm fields partly due to reduction in deep ploughing? Columnist Hugh Rogers offers food for thought

“@ scunnyexile,
I wasn't talking about ploughing,i was talking about keeping the the ditches clear and well below field level as their used to be an infrastructure between all these dykes/ditches that worked and were of a mutual benefit to all farmers and landowners alike but because no one can be ****d to keep them maintained anymore we get floods galore and it's the weathers fault apparently.”

“How deep do you want them to plough then dellboy?”

“Fully agree with Mondo51: I remember from mid 50's to mid 60's the deep ploughing which loosens the sub soil which assists drainage, they only seem to cultivate the top few inches and the subsoil becomes compacted, they used to lay the clay drainage pipes in any area with a dip that allowed standing water. When I started full time in early 60's it was a freezing winter and slack time spent digging out dykes and hedging, maybe some of the young school leavers should be employed digging out dykes, no A levels required. The jobs we had to do you would never get the young to do today, we had a gang of women in those days who worked as hard as some men.
Digging all dykes and dredging all drains and rivers would help a lot with the flood water.”

“I think it is the combined effects of excess rain, and dykes not being maintained, along with the loss of hedgerows, and the ease which todays farmers can claim compensation for spoilt crops! Maintanence of dykes on private fields should be the farmers responibility, but roadside ones should be the councils highways departments ! Around the Winterton area the roadside drains have been left for many years without a shovel lifted, apart from someone planting trees in them!! Should Severn-Trent or Anglian water have a responsibility to drain this water away? Next time we have a weeks sunshine they'll be shouting "drought"!!!! Let all responsible get together and sort out the problems, instead of saying it is someone elses problem.”

“@ scunnyexile,
You numpty, didn't they teach you at school that water will always find it's own level,it's got nothing to do with being dry.”

“So if you dig down three or four feet the land will be dry? What a silly story.”

“I also agree it mainly the farmers fault,,, years ago we saw company`s doing pipe laying in the fields to drain them now nothing, no sub soiling any more and drains mmmmmmm well next time you drive past a flooded field ,check where the water is standing and i bet real close to a drain i use the word drain but there more a shallow dip where a drain used to be, when i was working on a farm when all crops were in, then into the drains we went shovel`s big whellys, following a dikeing machine , you do you see men in drains cleaning out to day? no as there are no cab heaters ,radios,comfy seats in drian bottoms so before the farmer say not our fault take deep breath and look around and yes i did farming for many years 1968 to 80 if they ca nnot do it in tractors they wont do it......”