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.

Camelid Stories

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

Eric Hoffman, in his book, The Complete Alpaca Book, writes: "Understanding how alpacas communicate is both entertaining and an extremely valuable management tool. After 6000 years of domestication, alpaca behavior has been modified by human management and breeding, but communication among alpacas is still rooted in their ancestral past. A look at behavioral research gives us insight into the amazingly broad repertoire of communication alpacas have inherited." (2nd edition, pg. 33)

Below are a few stories where llamas and alpacas exhibited interesting communication and behavior:

Beyond Survival Instinct

Brad Kessler in his book, Goat Song, tells an amazing survival story of a ram and his protector, a llama, living in the wilds of Vermont.

A neighboring farm had a dozen or so sheep and a guard llama. The owner's interest in the animals was to trim their fields. For fencing, they had a few strands of rusted barbed wire.

The llama did his job well until one summer a pack of coyotes began to take the sheep one by one. By September, all that was left was a ewe, a ram and the llama. The llama had a haggard look. The ram never left his side. The ewe was doomed with fear. Sure enough by frost, only the llama and ram were left. Then one day — gone.

Hunting season came and went, winter, and early spring passed. One day, late spring, the llama and ram were spotted nearby. The owners of the animals were contacted, the llama and ram caught, and put tight in a barn. Somehow they still managed to escape twice until finally, the barn was so secure that they no longer could.

Reproductive Instinct

One day I put one of our breeding male alpacas in the pasture with two females (with crias at their sides) that needed to be bred. This has and continues to be our preferred method of breeding. In that pasture there was also a maiden female gestating at 11 ½ months.

The sire went over, sniffed the manure pile to see who was receptive, and then went to check the females against his findings at the pile. Then, he began chasing one of the females. I left the pasture to go do other chores and would check back to see if any breeding was taking place.

Minutes later, my son came running to tell me that the sire was breeding the very pregnant female! My son explained that he saw this female approach the sire and cush. He then mounted her. Concerned for her well-being and the unborn cria's, I ran to get a halter to get him off of her! I put him back in his pasture and then examined the pregnant female. She remained cushed, like a receptive female would. I inspected her vulva and observed her for a while. All signs were that she was fine — ears forward and an overall relaxed body posture.

I took the opportunity to do fence clipping so I could keep an eye on her. About an hour later I saw a pair of feet dangling out. She had an easy delivery; a vigorous cria and she passed a healthy placenta.

In hindsight, I believe she cushed for him because she knew it would help to bring on labor. In humans and other species, intercourse is thought to help bring on labor. The sperm contains prostaglandin, which can help soften the cervix.

Exceptional Guarding

We have a small herd of four females plus crias. In the warmer months, they rotate on pasture with access to a 3-sided barn. There is no question that Opal is the herd guard, and we hear her warning calls from time to time when an unknown dog walks by or wildlife lurks in the forest beyond their pasture. She's discerning with her alarm and only alerts the herd when there is true danger.

One day, she was alarming. I went to investigate and for the first time ever, she was facing the house, not the forest nor the logging road where neighbors walk their dogs. She went on and on and I could not figure out what she could be alarming about in the direction of the house. The rest of the herd had banded behind her staring intently in the same direction.

After about 10 minutes of this, suddenly there was a great cracking sound and half of an old maple tree came crashing across the driveway, exactly the direction she had been facing and alarming. After the tree was down, she discontinued her alarm and went back to grazing. Two weeks later, she delivered a male cria. We named him "Timber".

Mothering Instinct

Stardust is our 'star' when it comes to reproduction - exceptional crias and ability to nurture her young. In her 5 years of production, she has had 5 flawless births; all vigorous crias and they grew strong and healthy. This spring, she surprised us with a cria one week before 11 months of gestation. Just after birth, we usually stay back and give the cria the opportunity to walk and nurse independently and bond with its dam. This little one did not get up and did not sit prone position, so we intervened. Upon investigation, we found her temperature to be 4-6 degrees below normal.

After a couple hours, we were able to get her temperature up and then hold her up to get her nursing. For the next 30 hours, we had to check her temperature, hold her up under the dam to attempt to nurse, and syringe small amounts of goat collostrum into her mouth. At one point in the middle of the night, she appeared dehydrated and assumed the death position, so with no 24 hour vet available, we injected IV fluids under her skin and tube fed her. All the while, Stardust allowed us to do all this to her cria. She stood perfectly still while we tried to get the cria nursing and hummed calmly to her baby.

Just about 30 hours after birth, the cria was finally able to get up and nurse on her own for the first time. I was relieved, but not secure that she was going to be fine. I checked on her two hours later and to my great surprise, this dam, who had just hours before let me do anything to her cria, screamed at me as I approached and covered me with spit from head to toe. Despite my efforts to get close to the cria, I could not. Finally, in complete frustration, I had to relent and trust that our star knew she could take it from there and that it was her time to bond with her cria. Of course, I checked on them a few times in the night, but from a distance. A week later Stardust resumed her old ways; she ceased screaming at me and let me near her cria as she has let me near her others.

Communication

We had a male alpaca that came to us difficult to handle and not very trusting of his human caretakers. After a few months of positive handling, he came to trust us and greet us when we entered the pasture.

One day while cleaning up manure in the pasture, he walked right up to me, stared right into my face, hummed loudly, and then walked over to the pile and urinated. He repeated this two more times. It wasn't until the second time he behaved this way that it occurred to me that he was trying to tell me something. On the third time I found what he wanted me to find, he was straining to urinate at the pile.

I called the vet and he indicated that it was most likely a UTI (urinary tract infection) and that I should treat it. He said it sounded like it was caught early since he had a fair stream of urine but with obvious straining. The vet said he should improve within 1-2 days. He was obviously feeling much better on day two when he stopped coming over, humming in my face and going to the pile. I later found the source of his UTI. My children had mistakenly given him a whole bale of alfalfa instead of hay when they were doing chores.

Cooperation with Other Species

On our farm we have: 2 alpacas, 10 sheep, 2 goat does, 3 Lowline Cattle (bull calf, cow, steer), 3 Red Wattle Pigs (sow, boar, meat), 1 Maremmma LGD, and 25 Guinea Fowl. Everyone eats together without any problem. Everyone sleeps in the same general area unless there is bad weather, and then they all have their distinct shelter areas that they go to. The sheep all stick together, the pigs and dog all stick together, and the cattle and alpacas stick together. The goats float between the three groups.

One of the alpacas, a bred female, spends most all of her day with the cattle grazing or sunning. One interesting thing I have come to notice is that General (our LGD) is on duty at night and sleeps most of the day. Our pregnant female, Beana seems to take over the day shift. She is on high alert, and whenever she hears something suspicious, she will take off running toward it. Her alarm alerts General (LGD) and he wakes up and takes over while she herds everyone together. It is very neat to watch.

We used to have three LGD's and each had a job. General was the baby of the group and was the herder. Now that it is just him, he seems to work in cooperation with Beana, the alpaca, and has given the herding role to her. They seem to work very well together. I'm not sure how often the perceived threat is an actual one, but there have been instances of coyotes in the area. We kind of have a three-pronged security system as the guineas or Beana, the alpaca, seem to sound their alarm first, and General (LGD) takes over the investigation while Beana herds the animals together. It is fun to watch and perhaps as a result, we are a predator-free farm for the most part!

Our camelids have an amazing array of interesting behaviors to observe: body postures such as the alert stance, submission, the standoff, or relaxed position; ear, tail and head signals; vocalizations such as humming, the alarm, orgling; scent such as flehmen when the male alpaca sniffs a dung pile to decode the scent and reproductive status of his females; locomotion displays such as pronking or fighting; herd response such as banding or offensive aggressive herd response. Every camelid farmer should take time out in the day to observe his/her herd, perhaps even keep a diary of interesting behaviors observed and, for sure, - share your stories!

Karen Nicholson, of Stepping Stone Farm Alpacas in Stowe, VT, has a herd of nine alpacas bred and managed for valued traits including: fiber excellence, conformation, reproductive vigor; hardiness and temperament. Also on the farm are: two French Alpine dairy goats, Indian Runner ducks, broiler chickens and several laying hens, all integrated into their farm management program. Karen writes for three farming journals and keeps a blog: http://stowevermontalpacas.blogspot.com/. Any comments, questions or stories can be directed to: stowealpacas@gmail.com.

Understanding Animal Motivation

By Temple Grandin, Ph.D.The Camelid Quarterly, March 2007

Training a horse, mule, ox, or other animal is easier if you first figure out what motivates the animal. These four basic drives motivate horses and other animals to do things: Fear, Aggression, A Learned Response, and Instincts.

Fear and aggression are often misinterpreted. Did the horse kick because he was fearful, or did he kick because he was aggressive or bad?

Neurologically, fear and aggression are different emotions that may result in similar behaviors, such as kicking or pinning the ears back. Determining which emotion motivates the kicking is important because punishing the horse for kicking will make a fear-based behavior worse. If kicking occurs during a training exercise, it is likely to be fear-based.

Fear is also the likely motivation if an animal becomes agitated when it is alone, tied up, or held in a squeeze chute. Another factor is genetics. A horse or ox with a nervous, high-strung temperament is more likely to have a fear-motivated behavior than an animal with a calm, placid temperament. It is unfortunate that some breeders select for hot - blooded draft horses. This pattern of selection is likely to result in more problems with fear-motivated behavior.

An animal with a hot temperament is more likely to blow up when it is suddenly confronted with a scary novel experience. Many people have said to me, "My horse behaves well at home, but goes berserk at shows." This behavior occurs because shows have many scary things an animal never sees at home. A flighty horse must be accustomed to flags, balloons, and fast moving bikes long before he goes to a show. A safe way to introduce a horse to balloons and flags is to put them in a large pasture and allow the horse to explore them. A dangerous practice is to suddenly confront a horse that has a flighty temperament with a scary object, such as a flag, when he is in a confined space where he cannot move away. Flags and balloons are scary because they make rapid movements and have bright contrasting colors. Bikes are frightening because they move rapidly and can silently sneak up on the horse. If the horse is allowed to voluntarily approach these objects, however, they may become attractive.

Eliminating Learned Bad Behavior

An animal often learns bad behaviors because people inadvertently reward the behavior. One common problem behavior is a horse pawing and striking the stall door at feeding time. The horse acts this way because he thinks it will speed up being fed. If feed is given while the horse is striking the stall door, his undesirable behavior will be reinforced and rewarded. He learns to associate being fed with pawing the door. To eliminate the behavior, drop feed into the manger at the precise instant the horse stops pawing at the door. The timing must be right so that the horse will associate keeping his foot still with getting fed. To stop pawing behavior, reward the horse for keeping his foot still.

True Aggression

True aggressive behavior occurs when an animal views a person as a herd mate that needs to be dominated. This problem occurs especially with bulls. Castration will reduce aggression in adult animals, and, if done at a young age, mostly eliminate it. In grazing animals, an orphan male raised away from its own species may be imprinted to people and think he is a person. The resulting behavior is cute in a young animal, but when the male becomes fully mature, he can be dangerous. At full maturity, he may turn on his caretakers to prove that he is now the dominant male in the herd.

Raising young bull calves in a social group helps prevent aggression towards people. Young bulls and stallions must learn they are not people. Orphaned male grazing animals should be either castrated or placed in a social group with their own kind by six weeks of age. When they grow up with their own kind, they learn who they are, and any aggression is more likely to be directed toward their own kind.

The male aggression problem is not due to the animal being tame. It is due to mistaken identity. Social behavior in grazing animals has to be learned. Grazing animals must learn the normal give and take of social behavior. Horses or cattle that are reared alone will often be vicious fighters when mixed with other animals. A young stud colt reared alone may constantly fight other horses because he has never learned that once he has become dominant, he doesn't need to keep fighting. Stallions will be easier to manage when they are mature if they are reared as young colts on a pasture full of other adult horses.

Instinctual Behavior

Instincts, or so-called fixed action patterns, are behavioral patterns that are hard-wired into an animal like computer programs. These innate behavioral programs are not dependent on learning. The behavioral program runs when it is triggered by certain specific stimuli that animal behavior specialists call sign stimuli. Birds have many more instinctual behavioral patterns than mammals. The mating dance of birds is a good example of instinctual behavior. In stallions and bulls, the flehmen lip curl is an example of an instinct. Smelling a female hiestrus will trigger it.

Many reproductive behaviors are hard-wired and instinctual. Pressing on a calf's forehead may trigger butting, which will become dangerous when he grows up. A calf should be stroked under the chin or on the withers to encourage it to take a submissive posture. Never play butting games with calves. An instinctual behavior often interacts with learned behavior. Breeding behavior is instinctual, but who is bred is learned. Ram lambs nursed by nanny goats will attempt to breed goats when they mature. To establish normal breeding behavior, orphan animals should be reared in a pen with their own species.

Bottle-feeding a baby for a few weeks will usually not cause cattle to imprint to people if they are penned with their own species. Understanding the motivating basis of behavior makes it easier to deal with that behavior and improve an animal's performance. Punishing fear may make it worse, but some force may be required to stop true aggression. When dealing with aggression, imitate the animal's natural instinctual behavior patterns. A bull that is ready to attack will make a broadside display to show how big he is, facing sideways toward the one he plans to dominate. The broadside threat is an innate instinctual aggressive threat behavior. A bull that displays it toward people can be dangerous indeed. Some bulls will submit and move away when a person makes an imitation of the broadside threat by making themselves look big. If the bull will not submit and move away, he should be culled before he kills somebody. Any bull that charges people in an open pasture is potentially dangerous and should be culled. Aggression toward people must be pre-vented by rearing bulls in social groups.

Smaller animals, such as pigs and alpacas that become aggressive may be dominated by using species typical aggressive patterns. I have successfully exerted dominance on more than one young pig by shoving on its neck with a board, in the same location where a dominant pig would bite. Rearing animals in social groups, however, is the best way to avoid problems of mistaken identity. Exerting dominance over an animal does not mean beating it into submission. During training, all animals respond to positive reinforcement such as feed treat, stroking, or a kind voice.

Trainers should use positive reinforcements to train horses, cattle, and other animals to do tasks. Next time you watch a pulling contest, note how the loggers' horses usually pull better than horses that have been motivated to pull by whipping. Positive rewards make a better motivator than fear.