- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
As other have said it's really a time issue more than anything else, and soils do get more resilient the more you feed them.Makes a lot of sense, but what about shallow compaction with all that trampling?
That little (hopefully) bit of compaction gives millions of sites for air/water to enter, instead of having the thatch you describe the hoof alters the topography (at a really minute scale) enough to be of great benefit. Generally here you can park cattle for a day in the wet, but you have to run sheep around to do it - but the moment it dries out then those prints are a focal point for vertical openings, like a billion chimneys with funnels on top.
This allows much better respiration for the soil biota, and helps drive root depth IMO.
So I guess it's short term pain for longterm gain, again it really all relates to time, all things do