Pug

No, we haven't got a dog.

"Pugging" is a term that describes the what happens to sodden pasture when it's stepped on by a heavy animal. The soil is compacted into a perfect hoof-shaped bowl.  Imagine thousands of these bowls creating "texture" over the field.  Now imagine trying to roll tiny wheels in and around these bowls as we move our broiler pens around this summer.  GROAN.

See the water collected in the hoofprint?

Because we had no way of getting the cows OFF the ground, into a barn or true "sacrifice" area, we have created this mess for ourselves.     

The reason you want to avoid putting animals on wet ground is the same reason you want to avoid working in the garden when the ground is wet: soil compaction.  When you have clay soils, as we do, avoiding soil compaction is extremely important.

Now that the cows are gone, there will be no further damage to the pasture.  I will have to research how to repair the pugging that has occurred.

Goodbye, Oinkers!

Pugging.  Yuck.