Well, eight days after going inside their Winter Pad - the cows are back out!!!! Over the week, since Storm Brian, we have slowly been seeing the land get drier and drier and today came the realization that actually, it was probably dry enough for the cows to be back on it and NOT to do a great deal of damage. We opened our 'new' gate that leads straight back out onto the field and they were off without a second glance, leaving, we might add, a few divots in the ground as they ran but as the excitement of it all lessened, so did their galloping!! And as this photo shows, the land is fine – albeit now covered in hay in places as Parsley (thanks very much) dragged a whole bale from the barrow onto the ground – because obviously it tastes much nicer having been dragged on the grass!!!! We are very happy: it is great for the cows to be out both for them (more space, access to grass) and for us (less mucking out) and with our sheep numbers being reduced to just six in a week (due to selling and an abattoir run), we will only have 17 animals on the 4-acre - including the cows. Last year we had 16 without the cows, although obviously a cow’s impact on the land is much greater than a sheep or alpaca’s. We do wonder how long we may be able to leave them out for though – we are currently set dry for a another week or so at least... fingers crossed for even longer!!!