Guard Llama

Sue reckons the difference between a bad haircut and a good one is about two weeks. She told us this while Noah was perched on a stool after dinner last night, sitting still as she wielded comb and scissors, snipping away. I’m not quite sure why she brought it up.


Em and I dropped him off at preschool today and continued on to a Farming Workshop at Chris and Ann Eggert’s dairy farm in Wauchope. We’ve gone to a few of these workshops now and they’re generally excellent with lots of good information, tips and other small farmers to talk to. The first talk was on Livestock Selling and Marketing, given by a local TAFE teacher. It was one of those talks where a door is opened into a world that you only ever viewed from afar. Aimed primarily at the strategic selling of beef cattle it was a little outside of our sphere of interest but it was thought provoking nonetheless. I haven’t really thought of raising beef cattle but from what he was saying one of our best options would be to raise weaners, born in early spring and then sold around Christmas, leaving the mothers to put some fat on over summer to get through the winter when pasture growth is slow and feed is scarce. The weaners are mainly sold to farmers looking to build up their herds out west of the ranges where they fatten up quickly on the good quality feed and fetch a good price. I have a problem however with treating animals as pure economic units so I’m not sure I could do it. In the chase for maximum profits, or even any profit, production is streamlined, fast weight gain is desirable, cows and calves are separated, translocated, inoculated, drenched – the list goes on. What seems to drop off the list are things like animal welfare and happiness, organic principles and respect for the environment. Given the choice I have I’m not sure I want to be part of such a system, although Em knows people down near Canberra who have a biodynamic beef farm. It would be interesting to talk to them and maybe go and see their farm sometime.


The other part of the workshop was taken up by Chris Eggert speaking passionately about biological farming – soil chemistry, grazing management, weed management, compost – lots of good stuff. Em and I always take a lot away when we hear Chris speak and we get very excited, impatient to get our farm set up and producing more. I think if we’re going to go to the trouble of improving our pasture for our two dairy cows we might as well get some beef cows as well and utilise them as a powerful tool on the farm for weed management, nutrient recycling and another food source. No ending up in feedlots for our cows. Our neighbour is looking to get rid of a couple of cows which he says we can have so it may happen sooner than I think.


We ended the day with a paddock walk, checking out his amazingly lush and diverse pasture. He has gone into partnership with some friends and now has 1700 chickens laying organic eggs in mobile sheds in his cow pasture. The chooks break up the cowpats, eating fly larvae and adding more fertilizer to the soil through their droppings. He even has a guard llama in with the chooks, having got rid of the Maremma dogs he had which turned out to be more trouble than they were worth. There’s so much to do and it’s all so exciting.



“I’m grateful that I got to meet Steven today.”
(Confused? Look)