Today we finished pasture 5 by the road. It is wet and swampy when it rains, but it gets so overgrown and we can't get a tractor in there to cut it. So we will let the cows cut it for us.

Eric asked our friends Jim and Chris to come over and help. We got the wires done in a jiffy with all the help.

It took a bit longer to convince the cows to go in there.

After lunch we worked on trimming hooves. We had 4 that were limping. All 4 of them had hoof rot. It is a nasty, smelly and gross bacterial infection of the soft part of the hoof. I did as much as I could for the first time, but we will need to do them again soon.

This is a good reason not to take free animals, there is almost always something wrong with them. Those 5 free ewes we got a few weeks ago brought the rot with them. We should have quarantined them for a few weeks, but we really weren't ready for them. We were supposed to have a few more weeks before they came, but the dogs in her neighborhood were getting in and attacking the sheep and she was worried they would be hurt or killed, so we rushed and didn't quarantine them. Now I wish we had taken the time.

We also trimmed alot of the other sheep and goats. We got to all the babies and all of the Dorper ewes. We did 17 in all. It is not difficult, but necessary. It is amazing how fast the baby's hooves grow.