Our Llamas

Our llamas are the guardians of the farm. They protect everyone from the bad guys like coyotes, foxes, hawks, and eagles. As an added bonus, they also produce significant amounts of fiber that we have mill-spun into appropriate yarns. 

The llamas perform their guarding duties in a very different fashion from a livestock guardian dog. An LGD patrols its territory and strives to prevent predators from approaching. Our llamas stay with the herd all the time and never wander too far away from them, and if danger is detected, the llamas will round up the herd and chase them back to the barn. The llamas will then stand guard at the barn entrance and prevent anything from getting inside to the precious goats. If the barn is too far away when the threat is detected or it's getting too dark, the llamas will bunch the goats into a circle and guard the circle. With a small group of goats, like the bucks, one guardian llama works well, but with a larger group of goats, like the main herd of does and kids, we like to maintain two guardian llamas.

Just as our AAGBA angora goats require shearing for their health, the guardian llamas also need to be sheared. Their fiber is quite different, though, and we don't really use it for fiber arts, although it could be used for rugs or other times where a coarser fiber would be appropriate.

Our guardian llamas have a job to do and that is to guard our precious AAGBA angora goats. It is our job to take care of them and in order to do so, it's helpful if they are approachable. On the other hand, it is very important that a llama is not overly friendly. A well-behaved llama is a good balance between approachable and not overly friendly. When a llama is overly friendly, he can become dangerous by not respecting boundaries and being aggressive. Of the three llamas that currently guard our AAGBA angora goats, two of them are a very good balance and one of them is not quite as approachable as we would like. None of them are overly friendly.