This picture is definitely taken from the right end of the 4-acre field. The other end is in fact a tad wet and as the grass is also quite thin, we even have a few mud patches. There are several reasons why the other end is wetter than this end. It is lower than the top end and of course water responds to gravity. It is also much lower than our neighbour’s field above it and so gets all the run off from there too. Plus by having the collecting area and woodchip pad at the bottom end we have created a bit of bottleneck in that the pad and accompanying field shelters have both compressed the land underneath and so the water has to slightly go round them. Finally the bottom end is the most used with gates to the barn, collecting area and the road plus the field shelter gets used by the sheep and so we also have animal traffic!.
We have had some pretty bad days on the weather front recently but all we can do is to minimize movement where possible and continue to keep our winter numbers low.
Last winter was so dry compared to this one so far and so we are now learning just what the land can and cannot put up with. The long range forecast is currently telling us we are in for a cold, dry December – we can but hope!!!!