I have a drainfield from our septic system which I have just let grow, not mowing or using the area. I wonder whether our dairy goats could do some mowing for us by grazing on the grown up brush and grasses that are there. I am a little concerned that the drain field is not perfectly safe to be grazed upon because of human waste below?

-- Daniel Fagan (fagandr@juno.com), March 25, 2002

Answers

In my opinion the far bigger danger is the compaction those hoofs will do to your drainfield. I would not want livestock ruining my septic system. They are expensive to replace.

--->Paul

-- paul (ramblerplm@hotmail.com), March 25, 2002.

Oh man, you've got me scared now. I have three ponies in a paddock directly over the septic field. What is the deal with compaction??

-- Shannon at Grateful Acres Animal Sanctuary (gratacres@aol.com), March 25, 2002.

We graze our sheep or rams rather on our tile bed. Been no problem so far. Figure a ram weighs 200 pounds that's 50 per foot spread over a hoof roughly 2"x2" (???) so that's 12.5 pounds per square inch. Which is not much more than resting a crowbar on your foot. Now ponies weigh considerably more. Never heard of tile beds passing on human disease to animals. E coli, salmonella, etc. should be killed in a properly functioning septic tank.

-- Ross (amulet@istar.ca), March 25, 2002.

I have a new system, and the drainfield is down, I think, around a foot and a half. This was just done last year, and since it's in the middle of my pasture, I asked the guy who installed it if I could run horses in there. He said it wouldn't be a problem. I bet your health department will have an as-built plan on file that will show you how far down your pipes are, and they can probably tell you what you can run on your drainfield as well.

-- Laura Jensen (lauraj@seedlaw.com), March 25, 2002.

Our goats did munch the brush goodies on top of our drainfield back at our farm in VA. Our neighbor put septics in for a living. Ours was a fairly larege sized field and for the life of me I cannot recall the depth of the trenches, I do recall they were pretty deep. In the spring after we asked our neighbor, same one, if he could plow a garden and he suggested the drainfield as being the ideal site considering we had tons of clay soil there, well, red mud. We asked him about the weight or the tractor, he said no problem. Our goats sometimes ate the brush on the back half of the drainfield on their way to the larger pasture.

So yes, depending on the depth of the field they can.

-- Bernice (geminigoats@yahoo.com), March 25, 2002.

I guess where I live a new septic has to be a mound system, with lift pump, and very shallow laterals, no more than 12", that's probably close to where the bottom of the tiles would be. These sytems cost close to 10 grand by the time all the inspections are done.

So, I'd play it safe & not do anything with a leach field, but let it leach! :) Too expensive to make a mistake 'here' on this issue.

I also live in a fairly damp climate, with occational heavy rains on heavy yellow clay soils. I would not want livestock munching in the mud over the top of the laterals. Compacting the soil with those hooves may, possibly, make the ground compact quite a bit in my climate, and that would make things drain slower, poorer.

But, things can sure be different wherever you are. If you are allowed to have deeper laterals, or different soil or climate, might work out just fine for you. Here, regulations are getting so nutz, I would not take the chance.

--->Paul

-- paul (ramblerplm@hotmail.com), March 26, 2002.

If the water is bubbling up from the leach field and the ground is muddy and smells it wouldn't be safe to let them graze there. But in that case you would be needing a new system anyhow. I have grazed horses and sheep in a pasture with a leach field and the best grass grew right over it!

-- kim in CO (kimk61252@hotmail.com), March 27, 2002.