After a night of rain, we were a bit worried about the state of the four-acre field this morning but in actual fact, it wasn’t too bad. The gateway from the barn is hideous mind you and made worse each day as we take the green trolley through it, usually twice! We took a good walk round the whole field, keenly followed by six alpacas and seven sheep and then debated whether confining the animals to the field shelters is either necessary or a good idea! As far as the animals are concerned, the only downside to them remaining out is the potential, in the case of the sheep, for scald to develop in their feet. As far as WE are concerned, our main worry is the land. The more poached it gets, the longer it will take to recover in the spring. Having stock inside the field shelters on the other hand, gives us more mucking out to do AND the animals won’t be as content, plus we will use more straw and hay. BUT, we won’t need to walk across a wet field each day to check them and top up their hay, NOR have to rake up spilt hay and move their hay trolleys around to stop poaching. You can see why making a decision is hard! We decided to make sure that both the field shelters in the three acre field are strawed out and topped up with hay and for the moment continue to leave the animals with the choice as to whether or not to take shelter. We will however, fence off the very end of the field near the muddy gate back into the barn (using electric) and then at least the only traffic it will get will be us, and not an additional 52 feet! This may help a bit!!!
The photo shows how thin the grass covering now is but this end of the field is not (yet) succumbing to mud!