I know to most farmers and primary producers we are probably classified as a hobby farm but I really must insist that here at Diamond Forest Farm Stay there are some things that we have to do just like any real farm. No we aren’t a primary producer. Yes we do have numerous types of animals, they are all exceptionally well fed and we don’t sell our animals to market each year. Despite the fact that we also have a few charity cases on our farm stay we still have to function, in many ways, like a real farm and real farmers. Our neighbour, a primary producer and market gardener who has been on the land since the 1940’s thinks we are crazy and have way too many types of animals. Maybe he’s right but that doesn’t change how we do things. Even ‘hobby’ farms need to have appropriate and well maintained fencing, sufficient feed, up to date drenching just to name a few things.
I’ll admit we have more than just a few charity cases: There’s Chopper and Clancy our orphaned Kangaroos- now 8 and 9 years old; Boss the Merino sheep and Mulberry the Damara sheep that were given to us by a couple moving from small acreage into town and couldn’t take their pet sheep with them; Vivien the Australian Mini Pig given to us because her Mandurah family couldn’t keep her as their dogs thought she’d taste nice and they didn’t want her to end up as bacon; Elsie the disabled chicken who was born with a leg deformity due to our inexperience using the incubator; Sally the white pony who came to us from a stud farm because she couldn’t produce any foals and she was so hard to catch that they thought nobody would want her; and Flyby the ex-race horse who not only couldn’t win but also injured a young strapper and ended up the focus of a major court case and nearly ended up at the glue factory.
Okay we do have quite a few charity cases. That aside we still have to face the realities of farm life. That is we need to have enough land to be able to allow all our animals to graze and that means we have to restrict their numbers. We also have to ensure that we have ample paddocks so that we can rest our paddocks throughout the year. And of course we are a farm stay and our primary business is our guests: and our guests like to see a variety of animals and they especially like to see babies. Ducklings, chicks, lambs, calves and alpaca crias are very popular amongst our young guests, and some of their parents too. Sadly they don’t remain babies forever and so we need to breed new ones each year.
That leaves us with the situation of having too many animals, just like our neighbour keeps telling us. We have to face the same reality as all real farmers face. Unlike ‘ hobby’ farms we have to sell some of our animals. Each year we say goodbye to lambs, calves, and alpaca crias. Just this week we said goodbye to two of our alpacas Pixie (13 months) and Sasha (10 months).
Sasha took it all in her stride. Pixie was less than impressed and I received a few good coatings of alpaca spit as I tried to help load them up for the journey to their new home. Anybody who has ever been spat at by an Alpaca or Llama will tell you it’s a less than pleasant experience. Alpaca spit is generally regurgitated food, it’s usually green as their diet consists mostly of grass, it contains bile and it really, really stinks. The best way to get it off is to wait for it to dry and then it will just brush off. Small consolation if you cop it in the face.
Alpaca spit aside I was concerned about how our Alpacas would cope with the changes; particularly our mums, Blondie and Scarlett, and dad, Rolley, who were, essentially, losing their children but they seemed to adjust very quickly. That is as soon as the crias were out of sight the adults were just happy to be back in their paddock. It may have had something to do with being herded into our yards twice in the space of a few weeks; once for shearing and again so that we could separate the crias. Maybe the adults were just glad they didn’t have to go through the whole shearing process twice in one year.
It didn’t take long for Pixie and Sasha to adjust to their new home either. They made friends very quickly and their new owners are telling us they have settled in well and have lots of space, feed, their own dam and lots of new friends. A much better option than often happens for our calves and lambs. Some do go to farm stays or to people wanting pets. Some of the females are bought as breeders but the reality of farm life is that some of them go to market or into the freezer- ours or someone else’s. As sad as they may sound: That’s the way it is. This is what happens on a real farm and that’s why here at Diamond Forest Cottages Farm Stay we don’t see ourselves as just a hobby farm.