Relaxed Farming - our farm in your classroom

A glorious day: blue skies, sun and our first snowdrops! ALL the animals were out; even the dairy goats were back in their main paddock for the day. We were quite astounded how after just 36 hours without rain, the ground is, in places, comparatively un-soggy. There was a slight frost first thing which will have helped and also (dare we say this) the wind has helped as well. Wind WITHOUT rain (or moisture of any sort) is great for drying things off (think of the washing on the line).
Also amazing was how all the goats really tucked into the grass. As mentioned before, goats are browsers more than grazers, that is they enjoy eating shrubs, bushes and trees often more than grass (brambles and ivy being particular favourites). Whereas sheep are very much grazing animals and mainly eat grass! But this morning when we opened up and let everything out, both the dairy and pygmy goats were head down nibbling away at the top shoots of the grass. This winter has not been cold - we have very rarely gone below freezing and the average temperature in the South West has been around 1.4°C higher than previous winters (at 5.2°C) - as such the grass has, in places, carried on growing. It won't have the high sugar content of spring growth but nonetheless, it is obviously fairly tasty and will have some nutritional value.
What was really fabulous to see as well was the running and leaping and playing from the dairy goats in particular. Curds, our oldest goat, now the grand old age of six, was the most athletic doing several rounds of the paddocks leaping and bucking as she went. Should have had the video camera!!