Interview with Nancy Kish, Agape Hill Farm, Hardwick, VT

By Karen Nicholson

Nancy, tell me about your farm – what animals do you have?

While our primary animals are llamas (we currently have 20), we also have 7 Angora rabbits, 3 Icelandic and 1 Dorset sheep, 2 Angora and 2 Pygora goats, 3 horses, 2 cows, chickens, turkeys, pigs—and 3 dogs and 2 cats (and one fish!).

A successful business has a niche, what sets your farm and herd apart from others in the industry?

We run an interactive farm. Our primary focus is not on breeding or showing or even fiber. Our farm motto is "An Adventure for Everyone." We want to be a place where people can come and try something new. Visitors to the area can schedule a farm tour or llama walk on our trails. Several young adults with autism come regularly for llama walking. School children visit for field trips and also for behavioral interventions. We have an afterschool llama club where children work with their "own" llama, learn fiber art and other farm activities. We also do off-site visits such as to a local nursing home and libraries.

What is your greatest achievement or favorite memory since you started raising camelids?

It would have to be seeing individuals relax and grow while working with the llamas. One of our weekly walkers has an issue with keeping his hands tightly closed. He has learned over the past year to feed his llama which entails holding his hand open flat—and he loves it! We have also seen a young girl in the llama club who cried the first time she walked a llama. She has grown in confidence to the point where she has begun training one of the yearlings to go on trail walks.

What advice would you give to those just getting started with camelids?

Find what you love to do with your animals, get good at it, then find a way to make that a business.

Where do you see your farm and camelid business going over the next 5 to 10 years?

We would like to add a workshop room and farm store in the barn. Other than that, we would just be expanding the trail walks and workshops.

What has been your biggest lesson learned?

Take one step at a time and don't try to learn everything all at once. It can be very overwhelming when you feel like you need to learn to care for animals, train, shear, card, spin etc. all at once.

How do you see the industry developing in today's economy?

Local and natural products and services are in high demand—especially in our area. We need to capitalize on that! Look for new applications for fiber art (i.e. someone recently asked me if I could make a laptop cover for them!). Offer a local, reasonably priced activity like a farm tour or workshop.

What do you like best about your llamas?

I love their intuition and ability to connect. They just seem to know what a person needs. I'm amazed at how differently a llama can act in different settings and with different people. A llama who never seems to stand still will be like a statue when someone who is tentative is petting them. The most dramatic example I have of this comes from a recent nursing home visit. There was a lady who was unable to communicate or reach out at all. I went over to speak to her and hold her tightly fisted hand. As I approached, Whoopie Pie (my llama) walked up and gently "kissed" her forehead (llama style). He is not a "kissy" llama and hasn't responded that way to anyone else. I lifted her hand so she could touch him and she smiled. When I went back to the nursing home 2 weeks later, I looked for the woman again and was told she had passed away shortly after my last visit. I was so thankful that we had spent the time with her and that Whoopie somehow "knew" what was needed.

This interview was conducted by Karen Nicholson of Stepping Stone Farm Alpacas in Stowe, Vermont. Her family has a small, integrated farm raising broiler chickens and laying hens for food and pasture fertilization; Indian Runner ducks for Meningeal worm control; 2 French Alpine dairy goats for milk and brush clearing; and a herd of 8 colorful alpacas for fiber and their offspring for sale. Karen writes for VLAA, NEAOBA and other livestock publications. If you have comments about this interview contact: Karen@stowealpacas.com.

Reducing Animal Stress: Thinking the Way Animals Do

By Judith M. Powell, Farming, August 2006

The end of the growing season means that the time has arrived to move livestock from pasture to marketing. Animals that have enjoyed the freedom of self-sufficient grazing over a long, pleasant season are inclined to not respond easily to producers who face the task of moving them. Since they haven't been bothered by people much, livestock are not hep on the idea of getting pushed along into a corral or truck. Wanting as little stress as possible and a safe delivery to market destination, producers approach handling calmly and gently, yet the moving and loading often turns out to be not so fun for either party.

Dr. Temple Grandin, Colorado State Associate professor of animal science, specializes in animal thinking and in visualizing the way that animals do. Grandin suggests that there are simple things producers should do that will make a tremendous difference in the handling experience. Her insight comes from spending decades watching animal behavior and in dissecting the situations that humans put animals though. Her focus study over 30 years provides valuable payoff to producers interested in minimizing animal and human stress. She has achieved a true specialty in understanding how loading beef, pigs, sheep, goats, and horses respond to situations humans create.

Grandin urges producers to look for signals that their animals see by "taking an animal's view of the world." Take your blinders off, she challenges, and start to think sensory - based, like you're an animal. Start by paying careful attention to the little details that seem unimportant to the handler, but are so important to the animals.

"Vision is a dominant trait of all grazing animals," Grandin explains, and an important key to self-protection. Handlers should be watchful and be aware.

She advises producers to be thoughtful about when to work animals. Pick a day that is overcast and avoid the shadows caused by a sunny day, she says, and look for sharp differences in contrasting light and shadows. "Scan your setups. Don't expect animals to move into chutes or buildings with blasts of sunlight pouring into their eyes from gaps in sidewalls. If you have separations where sunlight gets in, cover them and get rid of them. Don't expect animals to walk from shadows into a doorway filled with bright sun. Don't load at sunset or early morning, and don't ask animals to look directly into the sun. Rather, work in the middle of the day. Position chutes so that cattle are headed toward a neutral light at the end - a door opened with quiet natural light the animals will head toward," she says. Working at night is also a good idea, Grandin suggests. When the lights are on, animals are attracted to the building when they see light at an end point, and they'll move in toward the light.

Grandin suggests that chutes be designed so that there is never a dead end. "An animal must be able to see a place ahead to go toward, and the handler needs to move them quietly through. Watch their eyes and ears. Calm animals point their eyes and ears at something that concerns them. You want ears pointed forward and not back and down. Flat-backed ears signal scared or aggressive animals," she warns. In explaining what she terms "the startle response," Grandin is clear in saying not to threaten or challenge. “Keep a safe distance and don't try to dominate by staring directly into their gaze. Turn your head away and give them a break."

"Horses and cattle have poor depth perception," Grandin explains. Give the leaders time to put their head down to examine what's in their path, like a puddle. "A reflection on the ground looks like a shadow, and a shadow looks like a hole in the ground, so let them take the time to look, especially the leader," she says.

Because cattle, pigs and sheep are herd animals, isolation of a single individual should be avoided, she suggests. "Allow the livestock to follow the leader and do not rush them. If they bunch up, handlers should concentrate on moving the leaders instead of pushing from the rear. Use animals’ natural behavior to exert influence over the group," she explains.

Pay attention to what is around your chutes and buildings when you work the animals, and don't load them on gusty days. "Stuff blowing around is the worst distraction. Look around for things that move in the wind," she advises, like flags and flapping coats, and remove them. Don't move cattle near a highway where cars and trucks are going by, and keep the area quiet. "No dogs. And no bikes," she points out. "No bikes when you're loading. Did you ever wonder why your animals seem calm and trained at home, and then you take them to the fair and you can't do anything with them? Get them used to things they'll be faced with beforehand. Decorate the pasture with the stuff they'll see at the fair - balloons, loud music, people passing by, kids on bikes. Let them sniff and walk past this stuff when they're not confined and can flee, and have the kids ride by them on bikes," she says.

Grandin has designed livestock handling facilities across the nation and in Canada, Europe, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, and other countries. Her work appears in over 300 scientific journals and livestock periodicals. Her published research examines cattle temperament, environmental enrichment for pigs, reducing dark cutters and bruises in cattle, bull fertility, animal training procedures and effective stunning methods for cattle and pigs in meat plants. Her books include "Livestock Handling and Transport," "Genetics and the Behavior of Domestic Animals," and "Animals in Translation," a New York Times best seller. Grandin describes how she processes information and learns visually as a person with autism, in her book "Thinking in Pictures." "When I put myself in a cow's place, I really have to be that cow and not a person in a cow costume," she writes. "A great deal of my success in working with animals comes from the simple fact that I see all kinds of connections between their behaviors and certain autistic behaviors. Being autistic has helped me to understand how they feel."

Excerpts from her research, as well as handling tips and chute and facility designs, are available at her web site, http://www.grandin.com/.

All Hay Is Not Created Equal

By Karen Nicholson, Stepping Stone Farm Alpacas, Stowe, VT

You are what you eat. So are our camelids. Since our grazing season is so short and so many farms are raising their animals on either a dry-lot or a pasture that is overgrazed, we rely on hay to feed them. It is important to feed them quality hay or you can end up with thin or unhealthy animals.

In Vermont, hay comes in 1st, 2^nd, and sometimes even 3rd and 4th cuts, depending on the growing season and the weather at cutting times.

First cut hay is coarse with a lot of grasses and doesn't have a lot of legumes, such as alfalfa and clover. It may have quack grass, timothy, and brome. It may be weedy too. It dries quicker.

2nd cut hay is very rich in nutrients and has higher protein. It is greener than the 1st cut. It smells sweeter as well. You have to rake and dry this crop of hay more than the 1st cut because it is heavier and thicker. Also it is more likely to rot or catch fire if baled wet.

3rd cut hay is really, really thick and green. It is rich and has a really sweet smell to it. It has a lot of legumes and less grass, which may be harder to digest. It is more difficult to dry.

Llamas and alpacas typically eat 2nd cut hay, whereas cows, horses and goats usually do well on 1st cut hay.

The best time to evaluate hay is before you buy it. Ideally, you'd want to go out to the field before it is cut and see the plants and the stage they are in. Or you can go once it is cut and on the ground before bailing. But for most of us, summer is our busiest season and we're lucky enough to get the necessary things done and get the hay in the loft. In that case, you can spend some time over the winter evaluating your hay and deciding if your source is worth sticking with.

Here are some quick tips to evaluate your hay:

1. Pick up the bail. – A good bale of hay will sag when you lift it up by the twine. Now drop the bail from at least waist level. It should bounce. If it thuds, it's a dud. Now, cut the twine or wire. The hay should spring out. If the bail had been packed too tightly it has likely trapped moisture, leading to mold growth. 
2. Look at the color. – Now that you have a bale open, look inside and see what color it is. If the outside is bleached from the sun, that's ok. But the hay should have a bright green color inside. This is an indicator that the hay has higher proteins and vitamins. Thumbs down on yellow and brown colored hay. No nutrients translates into sick alpacas.
3. Stickiness. – When you open the bale and pull the leaves apart, do they stick together? Yuck. No good. This is an indicator of mold. Does the bale feel warmer than others? Reject this loser too, and get it out of your loft. It is composting and could ignite.
4. Take a whiff. – Sniff that hay! You know what mold smells like and you can definitely smell it in hay. Quality hay smells sweet and grassy.
5. Work those eyeballs. - Really look at the hay. If you're buying alfalfa, make sure it's leafy with soft stems. In grassy hay, look for seed heads. REJECT! Lots of seed heads are an indication that the grass was cut when it was more mature and has lost protein value and palatability.
6. 'Listen' to your animals. – If you see them refusing a bale, trust that they are doing it for good reason. There can always be a bad bale in a good batch of hay (from the edge of the field, packed too tightly before they adjusted the twine properly, etc). Get rid of it and give them another. If they refuse all the hay (which happened to me one fall), first make sure it is good hay and if the only reason they are refusing it is preference, douse it with a molasses/water mixture to make it more appealing until they adapt to the taste.
7. How was it fertilized. – Ask your hay farmer what he uses for fertilizer on the field and how often. You don't want clumps of manure falling out, making it unappetizing to your animals and possibly carrying parasite eggs with it. Nor do you want hay from a field that has had little or no fertilizer – that will grow nothing but empty food for your animals. Organic fertilizer in the form of composted manure is better than chemical fertilizers.
8. Test it. – Your feed company will often do this at no charge and give you a write up on how much you should supplement your animals with grain, based on the nutrition of your hay and the demands on the animal (pregnancy, lactation, etc). Or you can have it tested by your local university or a private company.
9. Secure good hay for the next year. – If you are satisfied that your hay is of good quality and feeding your animals well, talk to your hay farmer and make sure you can secure hay from that same field next year. If you are not satisfied, begin seeking a new source now. Or consider buying a hayfield, seeding and fertilizing as you want it, and either haying it yourself, or hiring a hay farmer to do it.

Like anything, we can only do our best within the confines of everything we are doing in our lives. Thus, most of us cannot obsess about our hay. If all that time allows for are the first four of the list above, you can get by fine, as long as you monitor your animals for condition and vibrancy and make adjustments accordingly. But if time does allow, finding and securing an excellent hay source is well worth it.

Karen Nicholson, of Stepping Stone Farm Alpacas in Stowe, VT, has a herd of nine alpacas, two French Alpine dairy goats, Indian Runner ducks, broiler chickens and several laying hens all integrated into their farm management program. Any comments or questions can be directed to: stowealpacas@gmail.com.

Keep Those Llamas Happy!

By Bev Henry, Reprinted from The Camelid Quarterly, June 2009

When we think of herd health, let us not forget the mental well-being of the herd, as well as physical health. As with humans, stress has a tremendous adverse influence on llama health. A secure environment will go a long way to keeping stress to a minimum.

Llamas are extremely sensitive animals, needing the security of familiar surroundings, familiar herd mates, and a predictable routing if they are to thrive.

What do we need to do in order to achieve this?

Those few breeders with large herds on large acreage have more management options, allowing them to come close to approximating natural conditions. By "natural" I mean the herd groupings and feeding patterns one would likely find in the wild.

But the majority of llama owners in North America today are keeping llamas on small acreage. With these limitations, we need to pay close attention to herd dynamics. In a restricted area it is much easier for a dominant llama to bully a more timid animal, or to exclude one from the feed source. If dog packs or wild predators are cruising the neighborhood, llamas confined to a small area may feel very vulnerable.

How can we ease the stress?

The first and most important thing we can do is pay attention! Every time you go out to feed or clean up poop, take a deep breath, slow down, and spend a few quiet moments watching your critters. This quiet time with our llamas not only provides the opportunity to pick up on health or behavioral issues, it also has the added benefit of reducing our own stress level.

Make sure each animal has free access to feed and shelter. Be alert for any unusual behavior; watch for the animal that is isolating itself or being forced into isolation by its herd mates. Perhaps the addition of only one gate or one simple fence — fencing in a corner, for instance — will provide more security for a new llama or one who is being bullied.

Being sold and relocated is one of the most stressful events in a llama's life. He has lost his herd mates, his human companions, and his secure and familiar environs. Watch any new introductions to any grouping very carefully for several days. It takes only seconds for disaster to strike.

Females will usually accept a new female after an introductory period but they will often chase and isolate the newcomer for several days. You may need to feed a new introduction separately until she has been accepted.

Males tend to be more aggressive with newcomers. An adult intact male is a powerful and potentially dangerous animal. A full-power body slam from an aggressive male can break ribs and rupture internal organs.

On rare occasions, even geldings have been known to attack and kill newcomers, particularly in confined areas where llamas have no opportunity to establish their own zones. Be very cautious introducing a llama to your herd and do it by degrees if at all possible. House the new llama in an adjacent area to allow him or her to get to know the herd across the safety of a fence.

Be sure all fighting teeth are trimmed — start to check these around the age of two, if not earlier — and watch that the rough stuff doesn't get out of hand with males housed together.

Some intact males are so territorial they simply will not tolerate other males and need to be housed separately. If you have a stud like this, he will be happier with some sort of companion. Neutered male goats often work well. Everybody needs somebody!

Make sure fences separating males and females are safe and secure, and, if possible, provide a buffer zone between fences separating intact males and breeding females. Check that your fences are secure from roving packs of dogs if that is a problem in your area.

If you are breeding, try to plan for at least two crias to arrive in that season. Babies need company for normal social development. Should you be stuck with a single cria in any one year, do leave the baby with its mom as long as possible. A single female cria shouldn't need to be separated from its mom at all, and a male cria is probably safe with the female herd until at least ten months of age. By this time, his dam will likely have already weaned him.

Single male crias can get pretty bratty and disruptive about this time, and need the company of older males to teach them some manners. In other words, they need to be sent to boot camp. Moms and "aunties" tend to be far too lenient with younger males, watching their antics with rather bemused "isn't he just the sweetest thing!" looks, rather than snapping him to attention and demanding respect, as the boys would.

Throwing a ten-month-old weanling male in with the boys can be deadly though, so be very cautious here. It may be safer to isolate baby with an older gentle gelding for a time, one who is willing to be a "nanny" to the youngster until he has learned a few basic manners and his place in the scheme of things. A yearling male may bond with the weanling and make a good playmate. Some studs are exceedingly tolerant of newly weaned youngsters.

Remember that a weanling will not be able to successfully compete for food with older animals. Unless you have unlimited good hay/pasture available, the baby will need supplemental feeding for at least the first year to attain his full growth potential. Make sure you can isolate the youngster at feeding time.

Aging animals in your herd may suddenly need extra care. They may have lost their position in the herd and need supplemental feeding. They may be experiencing problems with worn teeth, so be alert for dropped wads of wet, partly chewed hay or lumps or swellings along the outside of the jaw. If you see a problem have your vet check to see if filing off sharp points (floating) of worn teeth may be necessary.

To ensure that your routine procedures, such as shots, shearing and nail trimming, are as stress-free as possible, try to get to a workshop put on by a Camelidynamics practitioner in your area. A simple change in your approach may make a world of difference.

Being alert and observant at all times will go a long way towards keeping your herd happy and healthy.

About the Author

Bev Henry has been involved with pack llamas since 1997 and is now breeding athletic pack stock along with husband Barry in Barriere, British Columbia, Canada. Bev and Barry are focusing on preserving the old style Ccara llamas. Bev comes from a background of a lifetime training and riding performance horses, is an amateur outdoor photographer, and an artist who interprets her images in pencil and watercolor.

Managing Barn Waste: Using Litter Boxes

By Paige McGrath

It's no secret to llama owners that llamas use communal dung piles—often multiple piles—but communal just the same. However, many are surprised to learn that llamas will use litter boxes. Most don't believe it until they see it. Training your llamas to use a litter box not only helps keep your barn clean, it can also reduce the amount of time and energy you use to keep it that way. Our llamas have been using litter boxes for about 15 years. And, with 100 llamas, this poop management tool is a lifesaver.

The Birth of the Litter Box

For the first three years we owned llamas — back when we had about a dozen — we tried everything to manage the manure in the barn. Coming from a horse background, the thing that made the most sense was shavings but we were afraid of the mess it would make in the llamas' coats. So we tried straw and hay to soak up the urine, but found it inefficient and it tended to produce a worse odor than the urine alone. Then we tried sand… which produced yet a bigger mess. Although sand was nice in the summer because you can wet it down to cool off the llamas, it was backbreaking to move and managed to get deep into the llamas’ coats. Eventually, we broke down and decided to try pine shavings/sawdust.

It worked great! It soaked up the urine, was lighter to shovel and the pine made the barn smell good. (I've always loved the smell of a freshly bedded horse barn.) But the llamas were kicking and tracking the litter all over. So we kept sweeping the loose litter into a corner, but found that the llamas followed the pile. So we installed a retaining rail to keep the litter in the corner and thus created our first "litter box."

How To Train Your Llamas

Start by spreading pine sawdust or fine shavings over their dung pile area. This will soak up the urine. Sweep the tracked litter back into place. Replace with fresh shavings after each cleaning. If the llamas continue to use the same dung pile with the shavings/sawdust and you're satisfied with the location, construct retaining "walls" with 4" x 4" wooden boards (or two 4" x 4" securely nailed on top of one another to create your "wall”). Then fill the area 4" deep with shavings/sawdust. The smallest box we use has an area of 3’ x 6’— this has worked well with small groups of llamas (one to four). Our largest litter box is 8’ x 8’ and takes two wheelbarrows full of sawdust (or two bales of shavings) to fill. There can be as many as four llamas using this box at one time (including babies who quickly emulate their mamas' toilet habits).

After you've been using shavings for a while, you'll find that your llamas will associate the smell of the shavings with their dung pile. This makes it very easy to assign the location of the litter box in new barns. Our barn was a six-stall, center-aisle stable. The llamas were using the stalls to poop and kept the aisle clean. So the litter boxes were located in the stalls. When we added a 30' x 30' extension on the barn (about 14 years ago) we put in an 8” x 8” litter box in the corner and filled it with sawdust. The llamas instantly knew what it was for and promptly christened it. While we have the occasional "miss" just outside the boxes, the rest of the barn has remained poop free ever since.

Labor Saver

We now have a herd of 100 and spend less time cleaning than we did when we had twelve. Our main barn houses about 60 females using two large litter boxes. Four of the six stalls are assigned to herd sires, each having a pasture and a private smaller litter box. The boys' boxes usually require cleaning once a week or less. When the weather is nice, the girls' boxes get cleaned out once or two times a week. In hot or rainy weather, the barn gets cleaned out as often as every other day.

We use a front-end bucket on our tractor to clean out the litter boxes. The bucket gets dumped into a manure spreader. The stripped stalls then get sprinkled with Sweet PDZ Stall Freshner and then filled with fresh pine sawdust. A full barn cleaning takes about two hours.

A dump truck full of fresh pine sawdust is delivered from a local mill about three times a year. The "dust" is relatively coarse and very fragrant. Bagged kiln-dried shavings are used in a pinch — and is kept in store during the winter "just in case." While bagged pine shavings are usually absorbent and light, the quality can be inconsistent, ranging from really fine powdery sawdust, to curled shavings, to wood chips. The powdery dust will turn to paste: the curls get caught in the llamas' coats; and the wood chips offer little absorbency. We prefer to stick with the fresh sawdust.

Now that you have your llamas litter box trained, you should have a cleaner barn, fewer flies, and more time to play with your critters. On the downside, your llamas may now see sawdust-covered show rings as a giant litter box. A small price to pay for a clean barn.

Barn Fire! What Do I Do?

By Karen Nicholson

Barns are highly combustible; time available for firefighting is very limited. First, never put your own personal safety at risk. A barn fire can develop extremely fast; it only takes 3-4 minutes for a fire to fill a barn with smoke. Most people die from smoke… not fire! Evacuating animals from a barn fire can be extremely challenging, time consuming, and actually impossible in some cases. Save equipment? Forget it!

• Try not to panic.
• Call 911. Tell them the status of the fire. Tell the dispatcher it is a barn fire. Give them your E911 physical number address, or be able to give them directions to your farm.
• Tell them if there are any people injured or trapped.
• Tell them if animals are in the barn: how many, are they loose or contained?
• Is your driveway difficult to see or find? Send someone out to meet the fire department. Many fire departments have a delayed response time due to poor directions.
• Shut off all power sources to your barn.
• If you are the only one at the barn, DO NOT enter the barn! If something happens to you, no one will know you are inside.
• If animals are loose or have been evacuated from the barn, they must be contained in a fenced field or penned away from the fire. They will try to reenter the barn; the barn is home, safety.