Wasn't sure where to post this one so I thought this was good place. I have about a .5 acre pond that I reworked last fall due to it leaking. I spent about 40 hours on a bobcat scraping and removing muck and cutting off a sand vein I found.It seems to be doing well but I have noticed my runoff has decreased. Two years ago my road commissioner put in a culvert across the road so I could get the runoff from the church's parking lot and the road which helped a lot. My biggest area of runoff is a two acre pasture on my property that gets going after we get a downpour. Well the other day we got 2.25" of rain in a couple hours and I happened to have a stick in the pond trying to see how it was doing. I only ended up with 3.25" rise in the pond level. Not good enough. Last year we planted big bluestem grass in that pasture and it and regular fescue is doing really well this year. It looks really good (about 3ft tall already) and it's great cover for the wildlife but I think it has stopped all of my runoff. It is very flat ground and I have a few ideas to fix the problem but not sure this is what is causing the problem. Does anyone have any experience with different ground covers and small areas of runoff?
Option 1: Keep it mowed.
Option 2: Cut paths with skidsteer all over the pasture putting the dirt in other areas creating mounds and valleys to get the water moving quicker.
Option 3: Drainage tile. Would this help at all?
Option 4: Leave it and just see how it does as time goes on.
Option 5: Put the horses on it for a couple years. Their pasture is like concrete.
Any ideas,suggestions or other options?

Last edited by jason7858; 06/05/16 09:13 PM.