Farm dogs and lawn camels

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Tuesday, February 28th.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER,  HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: Pets With A Purpose.

Today we return to the Bruderhof community in Australia. They are a Christian community that works, serves, and lives together based on their understanding of Acts 2 and 4.

REICHARD: How that plays out on a daily basis affects not only the people but the animals on their five and a half thousand acre farm in Australia. WORLD correspondent Amy Lewis has the story.

AMY LEWIS, REPORTER: The Bruderhof meet together outside several evenings a week to encourage one another. One way they do that is through singing fun folk songs. Tonight’s theme is Spring.

The Bruderhof live unconventionally. Not everyone can give up all their possessions to live, work, worship, and breathe together every day for years on end. But that is what the Bruderhof see as their calling.

JOHANNES IN THE FIELD: “They like the clover. They like the grass. They like the oats. I mean, the top third of the grass is the most nutritious. They’ll eat the oats off the plants…”

Johannes Meier is the farm manager at Danthonia Bruderhof in Australia. He works to connect what the Bruderhof believe with what they do on the farm. Meier uses unconventional farming methods that are part of a global trend called regenerative agriculture. It’s about more than just soil structure and how to feed your animals. It includes thinking philosophically about things like…dirt.

JOHANNES: …talks about the soil and all the components that build fertility, and produce growth as being like a symphonic orchestra. And if all those instruments are playing their own tune, it just sounds horrific. But when you bring it in line, and they're all playing together to the same beat, it's something of great beauty. And that’s, that’s where we’re going…[35:35] And all of that is when we're in line with God's order for creation.

One symphonic movement plays out in the microcosm of the Bruderhof orange grove. If you’ve ever seen the movie “Oddball,” where dogs guard penguins in southwest Victoria, you’ll recognize the fluffy white teddy-bear-looking dogs called Maremmano-Abruzzese Sheepdogs, or Maremmas. These fiercely loyal guard dogs originated in Italy and are often described as gentle giants. Foxes would disagree.

ANDREW: We've got these two dogs. One is called a Ringer, and the other we called Chase.
They're not hunters in as much as they'll just chase them off. They're big…And they probably would kill an animal if they caught it, but they're not that fast.

Bruderhof member Andrew Blough takes care of the young dogs.

ANDREW: …And so they're both puppies. I got them from a farmer down near Canberra …[3:02] and we got them to be in with our laying chickens…to protect them from foxes and other predators like eagles.

The dogs bond with whatever they’re guarding.

ANDREW: Whether it's sheep or goats or chickens, ducks, and once they know who they're guarding, then they are very good guard dogs.

These dogs protect 300 laying hens–or chooks–that fertilize the orange trees and keep them free of pests.

ANDREW: A lot of the old farmsteads would plant a few citruses around, and then they would put their chook pan underneath, because citrus…[17:10] they're shallow-rooted and a heavy-feeder for nitrogen. And so the chickens underneath would deposit a lot of manure in there. And so they kind of work together quite well.

Blough keeps a beehive near the oranges.

ANDREW: …and when you get the orange blossoms, and the bees just go completely nuts, but the honey, it has an orange flavor to it.

The dogs generally train each other. The younger dog, Chase, still plays a bit too much with the chickens. He hasn’t graduated to working full-time yet.

ANDREW: We would like in the long run to be able to have a moveable chicken house that we can take in other paddocks and move the layers. And in that case, then we wouldn't have a fox-proof fence and then the dogs would really be doing what they're supposed to do.

Blough says one of the hardest things with working dogs is not getting too attached.

ANDREW: I bring my grandson up here every evening, to feed them. He's just turning two. And he loves the dogs, and they're really good with him…And I hope I'm not bonding too, too much with them, because they're really friendly.

It’s easy to see how chicken-guarding dogs contribute to living and working together while mirroring the Bruderhof commitments. But then there are…the camels.

Johannes Meier’s unconventional means to increase the farm’s productivity and diversity includes adding unconventional animals.

JOHANNES: So out west, they're having a major problem with camels, there's way too many of them and they cull them and so we were able to pick up the camels at a very low cost. I think the most expensive part bringing them here was the freight.

Camels came to Australia in the 1840s from India and Afghanistan to help explorers reach the harsh Outback. When immigration laws kept cameleers out of Australia and cars came on the scene, handlers simply set the camels loose. Feral camels now number in the hundreds of thousands.

JOHANNES: And camels, love thistles…[0:45] And that's the first thing they go to when you put them in a paddock.

And that is why they’re here at the Danthonia Bruderhof.

JOHANNES: So we brought them in as a way to control woody weeds. We have the Sweetbriar. And we have Blackberry. And we have thistles.

The Australian government requires that property owners control noxious weeds or else pay a hefty fine.

JOHANNES: And we don't use herbicides on this property anymore…and so we needed to find another alternative control for that.

But camels are more than just natural weed-whackers. Their cud-chewing has biological significance for the cows. When camels and cows share a water source, their saliva mixes in the water. The camels’ unique microbes help the cows break down their feed better. It’s like backwash with benefits.

JOHANNES: And a camel is much more efficient at breaking down fiber and the feed. And therefore, when the camel shares those, that biology with the cow, the cow is able to be more efficient with the feed available to the point where it's measurable and beneficial to the cow.

They get rid of weeds. They help the cows digest better…

JOHANNES:…And I guess the third reason is they're just fun to look at.

Meier enjoys the camels…usually…

JOHANNES: I like them from a distance. A camel can kick in every direction, not just backwards…[3:50] Some of our community members have no problem going right up to them and stroking them, which is at their own risk. But, no, they're good fun.

Meier is more than an unconventional farmer…he is a Christian, with strong convictions about how we ought to live in this world…and that affects everything he does…

JOHANNES: I guess, my appreciation for how nature shows us how to live has grown, and that if we as people, and I'm not just talking about the Bruderhof, but about…all people on earth if we would live you know, in that way, of working together of symbiosis, of care, of sharing…[51:53] I'm part of a whole, and I'm gonna give my best….[52:54] And so I see in nature like a picture of how we should live as people.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Amy Lewis, in New South Wales, Australia.

REICHARD: Be sure to check out Amy’s cover article in the latest issue of WORLD Magazine. It’s called “Cultivating Community” … and it’s about the Bruderhof and how they care for the land. We’ve placed a link in today’s transcript.

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