Last winter we managed to keep the barns and field shelters going with just daily muck outs and then we did a full clean just before kidding, lambing and calving!! Not so this year, we have already done a full clean on one side of the cow shed and this week we also fully cleaned out the barn, where the goats spend much of their time, and the double field shelter which the alpacas and sheep have been using!! It’s all down to the weather, firstly because the animals have spent much more time inside and secondly because even when they are out on the fields, there has been a lot less sleeping outside and far more using the shelters at night. The other issue in the cow shed has been some water seepage ‘upwards’ as the water table underneath has been so high and being on clay, the drainage is not good!! The upside is the daily mucking out has gone back to being nice and quick (well, quick-ish) because for the moment, the straw is still lovely and dry. This will change, we have another week of heavy rain forecast but we will make the most of it whilst we can… We have put some of the spent straw ‘under’ the matting in the field shelters in an effort to increase the organic matter in the soil and so get better drainage – time will tell if this strategy works!! We certainly saw a fair few worms when we lifted the mats up so that’s good news!!