Relaxed Farming - our farm in your classroom

Jupiter and Neptune have continued to do a fab job all winter and we have not lost a single bird to the fox. You may remember that until they arrived just before Christmas 2013, we had lost a lot of birds to daytime foxes who thought nothing of strolling into our paddock any time of the day and helping themselves to dinner!
Alpacas are also used to guard sheep and their lambs and many alpaca breeders now find they are able to sell male alpacas for this purpose, whereas a few years ago, selling spare males was not so easy. As with all livestock, you never need as many males as you do females.
Whilst there are no true wild alpacas any more, in their native environment of South America, alpacas have to avoid a wide variety of predators and so the desire to protect their own young is very strong. This has led to a general in-built behaviour whereby anything that threatens the environment they are in, and that includes the other animals, is chased away and in some cases screamed at or even kicked.
It's strange to look at how gentle they are and how they never show any aggression towards us or the other animals and yet they are perfect guards. Even when we have had foxes appear, our two boys simply strolled over and stared. If you think of other guard animals, for example guard dogs, a very different image comes into one's mind!!!
Our Talk Topic for today