The value of a livestock guardian...
Anyone who a predation problem who has invested in a livestock guardian will tell you that the guardian is worth their weight in gold.
For some folks, the cost of maintaining a guardian, especially if canine, might seem excessive... until you lose most of your crop of lambs to a predator. Once you total up the loss and the damage, you realize that a guardian is cheap insurance.
Of course, you have to live through the puppy years if you get dogs and yes, sometimes you do wonder if they will ever grow up!
I chose to utilize two guardians for our farm, a DONKEY and DOGS. I have had both ANATOLIAN, ŠARPLANINAC and the mixed Anatolian/Pyrenees cross which seems to be popular in Oklahoma.
The Sar is THE livetock guardian breed for me. Our first Sar x was Yelena. Our second was her full sister, Sasha, who is my current guardian, working in tandem with Mr. Smokey, the donkey. Recently, Darko joined the farm. I'm very excited at what this heralds for the safety of my livestock. Darko is calm, with a sensible head on his shoulders but he IS still a pup so I don't expect much until he's at least 12 - 18 months old.
For some folks, the cost of maintaining a guardian, especially if canine, might seem excessive... until you lose most of your crop of lambs to a predator. Once you total up the loss and the damage, you realize that a guardian is cheap insurance.
Of course, you have to live through the puppy years if you get dogs and yes, sometimes you do wonder if they will ever grow up!
I chose to utilize two guardians for our farm, a DONKEY and DOGS. I have had both ANATOLIAN, ŠARPLANINAC and the mixed Anatolian/Pyrenees cross which seems to be popular in Oklahoma.
The Sar is THE livetock guardian breed for me. Our first Sar x was Yelena. Our second was her full sister, Sasha, who is my current guardian, working in tandem with Mr. Smokey, the donkey. Recently, Darko joined the farm. I'm very excited at what this heralds for the safety of my livestock. Darko is calm, with a sensible head on his shoulders but he IS still a pup so I don't expect much until he's at least 12 - 18 months old.