Winemakers think outside the box to protect their flock
Viticulturists are employing llamas and alpacas to safeguard their sheep, which in turn act as lawnmowers in the vineyard. Kathleen Willcox explains why it makes sense.
Harvest depleting hail storms, an explosive beginning to California’s fire season and tariff turmoil are no longer news. Unfortunately, they’re the new normal. And in this labour-challenged and cash-strapped market, it may come as a surprise that winemakers are, instead of turning to tech-based or industrial-style chemical farming solutions, increasingly relying on time-consuming and inexpensive farming practices—and a team of the four-legged kind—to help them grow grapes.
Growers across the world have been facing labour issues both in terms of increased hourly fees and lack of availability of reliable workers. Many are also eager to reduce their carbon footprint.
For many, that has entailed swapping human, chemical and mechanical weed control for herds of sheep. The side benefits are many.
By reducing or eliminating chemicals like glyphosate—which have been linked to the rise of disease, antimicrobial resistance, environmental degradation and cancer—and relying on sheep, growers are improving the health of their vineyards, grapes and human workers.
Fancy footwork
Another bonus is that the fancy footwork these sheep perform on the soil also improves the health of the soil’s microbiome and increases the fire resistance of the vineyard and the surrounding land.
And while investing in a herd of sheep, or contracting one of the growing bevy of sheep-herding service providers may seem costly, a study conducted by the Australian Wine Research Institute of a 508-hectare vineyard in Australia shows that growers saved AU$22,860 in labour and fuel over one growing season. Carbon slashing was notable as well: 13.82 t CO2-e or 0.03 t CO2-e/ha.
At first glance, bringing in sheep seems like a no-brainer. But wine country can be wild, and these hoofed weeders are no longer such a bargain when they get devoured by predators. Attacks on sheep from coyotes and a wide variety of wild felines is common. Human shepherds need to sleep, so who or what, then, will guard a flock of hundreds, sometimes thousands, at night?
Alpacas and Llamas
Many vintners are ripping a page out of ancient Inca and Peru’s playbook, bringing in alpacas, llamas and donkeys to protect their flocks. Others, meanwhile, have tried it all and say that while the admittedly Instagrammable creatures have their place and purpose in a herd, big dogs provide the real muscle against the fiercest predators.
Llamas and alpacas are primarily found in Peru and Bolivia, and belong to the camel family. Llamas are considerably larger, weighing in at about 113kg, and reaching 120cm at the shoulder. Alpacas, on the other hand, weigh in at around 60kg, and reach about 90cm at the shoulder. Llamas’ faces are also longer, with larger ears and coarser hair. Alpacas have shaggy hair, beloved for use in fleece production.
Donkeys rise to around 101.6cm in height, and weigh around 250kg, although sizes range considerably, depending on breeds. (The American Mammoth Jackstock donkey weighs in at the super-sized 544kg, for example).
Several breeds of dog are credited with excellent sheep-herding and care skills, like Border Collies, but only a handful (such as Anatolian Shepherds or Spanish Mastiffs) can also manage to save them from marauding lions.
Engendering trust
One of the reasons some producers prefer to work with llamas and alpacas is that they form family-like relationships with sheep, engendering trust.
“Alpacas and llamas are effective guardians as they form bonds with the sheep, but still still guard and protect them,” says Stasi Seay, director of vineyards and community relations at Hope Family Wines in Paso Robles. “They are good with smaller herds. Our herder uses them because they blend in with the herb, eating the same grasses as the sheep.”
Matilda Scott, winemaker at Almacerro, the most remote vineyard on Howell Mountain in Napa valley, is a fan of alpacas and llamas for their protective powers and zero-to-low maintenance requirements.
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“One or two llamas will bond with a mob of sheep or herd of goats and protect them from foxes, coyotes, my tiny dog Bowie and bobcats,” Scott says. “They stomp their feet and bite to scare off the predators. One of the biggest conveniences is that they don’t need auxiliary feeding like dogs. They eat the same foods as sheep and goats, so they can stay with their herds indefinitely without daily maintenance.”
Donkeys are also often tapped for their stubborn, protective spirits.
“We originally got two donkeys to guard our flock back in 2012,” says Jason Haas, second-generation proprietor of Tablas Creek in Paso Robles. “They were supposed to be big, tough and stubborn enough to protect against predators. A couple of years later, as our flock grew, we decided to get a llama as well, and we’d split the flock, with half going with the donkeys and the other half with the llama.”
Pigs as potential threats
But alpaca, llama and donkey protection can only go so far. While all three provide adequate protection against coyotes and small wild cats, large predators, like mountain lions, which can weigh up to 68kg, can kill not just sheep, but the protectors too.
“Alpacas and llamas are ideal for vineyards on properties not known for larger dangers,” Scott says. “When facing larger apex predators, like mountain lions and bears they work better in conjunction with dogs.”
And sometimes, alpacas get mixed up about what’s actually a predator. In addition to menacing Scott’s unthreatening lapdog Bowie, they read pigs as potential threats to the herd.
“Alpacas are watchful and will help alert a flock to a predator’s presence,” says Haas. “Our alpacas read the pigs we were raising as threats, and they would make a racket when they saw one snuffle by. The sheep and alpacas would run to the other side of the enclosure. Same when one of us wandered by with one of our pet dogs.”
Eventually, Tablas Creek lost both sheep and alpacas to a mountain lion attack. Then a few years later, the protection their donkeys and llamas were offering also began to diminish, he says.
“We don’t know if the donkeys and llama were getting older or whether the mountain lions, after a few years of observation, just decided that they weren’t actually that big a threat, but we started losing 20 to 25 sheep a year to lion attacks,” Haas says. “In 2018, we got 175+-pound [around 80 kg] Spanish mastiffs, and haven’t looked back.”
The donkeys and llama are living out their lives in an enclosure near the winery, and serving, unwittingly, as idyllic Instagram fodder.
In the end, Haas believes there’s a place for all of the animals. Well, save one.
Free spirits
“I think llamas and donkeys have value as guardians, if maybe not in an area where mountain lions are active,” he says. “But if anyone was getting alpacas to guard their flock, I would suggest they reconsider. They’re only a little bigger than sheep. But unlike sheep, which are followers, alpacas are free spirits.”
During alpacas’ time on Tablas Creek’s payroll, the winegrowing team spent as much time chasing 10 alpacas out of trouble as they did getting the 100 sheep they were supposed to be guarding from one block to another.
Sheep have proven their worthiness to growers and producers. Their cheapest and chicest protectors — llamas and donkeys — are effective, but not where lions roam.
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