While mud is ugly to look at and irritating to slip and slide through, this is the real reason we are putting done so much fresh gravel. There is probably a proper term for this, but I call them mud clods. The sheep walk through mud, it sticks in between their two "toes", dries into a rock hard and usually sharp clod and then is very painful to walk with.
I picked these from between Beanie Baby's feet last night.
If this happens to the front foot of a friendly sheep who will let me just walk up to them and pick out the clod, it's not a big deal. If it happens to a sheep who's not willing to be field caught, I have to bring them into a confined area in the barn to catch them. That's too is not a big deal and I can't stress enough how important it is to have a catch pen area so you aren't having to chase your sheep down to catch them.
Picking clods from front feet is an easy job. Picking clods from the back feet is a challenge even with a friendly "pet". Liddy had mud clods in both back feet the other day. I had to set her down on her fat butt (like for shearing) to reach them and pick them out. This is has become a daily job and I had to catch, set down and pick clods from eight sheep's feet last night.
Time to take care of the mud...since it doesn't seem like it's ever going to dry out. I didn't say that. I'd always rather deal with mud than a drought!
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