From Mud Tsunami to Thriving Pastures: The Farnhams’ Farm Plan Journey

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Adam (left) and Tracy (right) Farnham stand with one of their horses.

If you visit Adam and Tracy Farnham’s idyllic 4.9-acre property, you’ll find lush pastures, rain gardens, and native plant hedgerows buzzing with life, along with three content horses. But the Farnhams—who recently completed every single action in their farm plan—started their journey in 2008 with something completely different. 

“The manure had been piled in the low spots and the pasture’s soil pH was like battery acid,” said Adam. “In heavy rain there was basically a mud tsunami that went straight into the neighbor’s property.”

Fortunately, both Adam and Tracy had previous experience with farm planning on other properties. In fact, Adam had even been a member of the Snohomish Conservation District’s board of supervisors.

“With guidance from District staff, I knew that we could fix it,” said Adam.

First Steps

The Farnhams started by working with a District farm planner to develop a farm plan.

“It’s like an instruction manual or guidebook for your farm,” Tracy described. 

The excessive runoff made it clear that a drainage plan needed to be their first step.

“We sloped and pitched everything and put in a drain line,” said Adam. “Just doing that we had a gently trickling stream of water instead of a tsunami going down the hill.”

A few years later, the Farnhams installed a rain garden to absorb that remaining water, plus a second rain garden in the front of their property to capture even more runoff. Both rain gardens also help filter out potential pollutants like nutrients and fecal coliform bacteria.

“Now the water soaks in, even during big storms. It filters back into the water table, and we like knowing we’re replenishing clean well water for our garden,” said Tracy.

Protecting Pastures

Even with improved drainage, the Farnhams knew they needed to do a lot more to grow healthy grass. A key step was setting up their barn in a way that allowed them to manage the horses' access to the pastures. 

“Our stalls open to 20-by-48-foot gravel paddocks so the horses can move around year- round,” said Tracy. “But they don't get turned out on the pastures in the rainy season at all.”

“It's not like South Florida where you can just leave them out all year long,” added Adam. 

The Farnhams were well aware that keeping their horses in those gravel paddocks and off of pastures when the grass is dormant and the ground is soggy was critical to avoid soil compaction and overgrazing. Not only would this contribute to healthier grass, it would prevent mud which also meant healthier horses—and fewer vet bills.

“Hoof health is so important,” said Adam. “We don’t generally have abscesses or any mud-related issues with our horses.”

after years of hard work, the Farnham pasture is lush and mud-free.

The gravel paddocks are crucial for protecting horse hoof health during the wet months.

Rebuilding Soil

Protecting their pastures was one piece of the puzzle, but the Farnhams also needed to do some serious rebuilding of the soil to earn the lush pastures they have today. 

“We worked with the District to do soil testing to find out what nutrients we needed,” said  Adam. “Before we started, the soil health was a complete disaster.” 

For the first several years, they amended with lime and brought in about 150 yards of manure from nearby horse farms and composted it. They then top-dressed their pastures with ¼–½ inch of compost at a time, applying it during the growing season when grass could best absorb the nutrients and at rates that prevented waste or runoff. (Learn more about their aerated composting system and general spreading guidelines here.) 

Throughout the process, Adam and Tracy had their soil tested regularly.

“We basically imported the compost until the soil test said stop,” said Adam. “If we kept going after that we wouldn’t get a positive boost anymore and would start leaching off nitrogen.”

They took a little time off from spreading manure or compost until the soil test showed it was time to start again. All that amending paid off. 

“Now the top inch of soil here is almost like a sponge. It slows the water down and absorbs nutrients,” said Adam. “I’ve never used commercial fertilizer and we get good grass growth even when we have drought conditions.” 

Rotational Grazing

In addition to confining their horses throughout the rainy season, the Farnhams also set up a rotational grazing system to keep their grass healthy during the growing season. 

“Our fenced pasture has three gates so we can run temporary hotwire between them and put a horse in each one,” explained Tracy. “Or we use hotwire to block off sections that have already been grazed and need time to regrow.” 

The amount of time they allow the horses to graze varies throughout the growing season, starting slowly in the spring to get them used to the grass, a couple of hours every day in the first part of the summer, and then every other day later in the season when grass growth starts to slow.

The Farnhams follow the golden rule of grazing—leave at least three to four inches of grass. When grazed continually below three inches, grass plants can’t photosynthesize enough to stay healthy and become weaker as they pull more and more energy from their roots to survive. 

“Once it gets overgrazed it's hard to bring it back,” said Tracy. “And that's when the weeds can move in.” 

Natural Pest Control

When the Farnhams first moved to the property, they also had another problem: flies and mosquitoes. Cleaning up the mud and manure made a big difference, but Adam and Tracy have gone even further. They’ve planted hundreds of native plants that provide habitat for birds and other wildlife that naturally help control insects. They also have nest boxes for the violet-green swallows, and stapled peat pots on the barn where they want to encourage the barn swallows to nest (and spikes where they don’t).  

“It's like having 45 little bug zappers,” said Adam. 

But they didn’t stop there—Tracy has also added containers with carnivorous bog plants by the paddocks and barn to capture insects (read more about that here).

An unfortunate fly met its end in this Venus Flytrap.

The Farnhams have multiple pots filled with pitcher plants, flytraps, and other kinds of carnivorous plants throughout their property.

The carnivorous plants help keep fly populations down near the horse paddocks.

Managing Manure

Since 2008, the Farnhams have been steadily completing each of the actions in their farm plan and just this year, they completed the final piece: two concrete manure storage bins with a roof. 

“Cadillac,” Adam described it.

Before the new bins, the Farnhams piled their manure in a dry spot close to the barn and covered it with a tarp year round. Adam turned it with their tractor periodically to help add air, which helps the pile compost more effectively. 

“Every spring, once the grass started growing and the soil was dry enough to drive the tractor on, I’d spread the whole pile,” said Adam. “The only downside was that we couldn't compost it thoroughly enough to kill all the weed seeds. But we walk the property pretty much every day and if we see a weed, we just pull it up. That makes a big difference.”

Now, with their new system, composting is much more thorough and efficient. The roof keeps out rain more effectively than the tarp so they can manage the moisture content and add water in summer as needed.   

Adam has also set up an aeration system much like he used in the early days on the property, which helps speed up the composting process dramatically.

The Journey Continues

After 18 years of work, Adam and Tracy are quick to say that it’s been worth it.

“Everything we’ve done has been an investment, but we get that money back because we’re not spending it on vet bills, fertilizers, herbicides, etc.,” said Adam. “And since it’s so chore-efficient, I can focus my energy in the right places, on enjoying this hobby.”  

“In the depths of winter when I'm out in my foul-weather gear doing chores, I’m so grateful for all the work we've done,” adds Tracy. “The horses aren’t standing in mud—and neither are we.”

When asked if they have any advice for people just starting out with their farm plan, Adam and Tracy have suggestions to avoid overwhelm.

“Pick the most critical thing—and it's probably water related—and start with that,” said Adam. 

“One step at a time,” adds Tracy. “It takes a lot of patience and diligence, but as much as anything, enjoy the journey.” 

This project (WQC-2022-SnohCD-00101 Nutrient Runoff Reduction From Agricultural Lands in Snohomish County) was made possible with a Washington Department of Ecology Centennial Clean Water Fund grant.