The Camels are here!

Diversity - "yes" - Biodiversity - "yes of course, standard" - Camels - "huh?"

We've taken a big (supersized) step out here at Muster Park by introducing Camels to our property to complement our cattle and provide some extra weed control, and so far they're going about their business very nicely. Camels are a browsing animal that prefer to make their diet from woody plants, weeds and trees all of which we have in abundance!

Margie, Sandy and Lil Scout have mixed in really well with our bovine friends and have brought excitement and joy for all of us, and the neighbours. They are graceful movers, curious, watchful and calm - a pleasure to have around and personally, I could watch them eat weeds all day!

As well as weed control we hope to see an improvement in the performance of our cattle when grazed alongside these desert creatures. While attending a grazing management course with RCS Australia we were told about a study (see link below) that found there was a passing of bacteria from Camel gut to cattle gut through shared water troughs. This bacteria then helps the cattle to digest poorer quality feeds - in our case this would be the older tall grasses. The end result we’re hoping for is an improvement in weight gains and conditioning in our cattle particularly through the dry months of the year and dry periods in general. We have also seen firsthand that the camels can be managed with standard cattle fencing and moved through the paddocks easily to fit in with our regenerative grazing practices.....and so here we are, Camels in the paddock, grazing alongside our cattle with enough weeds to keep them satisfied for a long long time.

https://www.rcsaustralia.com.au/cattle-digestion-improves-when-grazed-with-camels/