In a bid to diversify, our farmers and landowners are turning the countryside into a menagerie of exotic creatures to delight our eyes. Who can pass by a herd of 50 reindeer without smiling? Steve Swinnerton breeds these, the world's northernmost deer, in the Midlands. Steve himself goes to Lapland twice a year to visit the Sami and herd reindeer including 200 of his own. Here in England his reindeer are bred exclusively to delight and amaze children and the young at heart. In the weeks before Christmas, Comet and Buttons and all their tribe pull sleds through town centres, parks and playgrounds. They are legend come to life, looking as otherworldly as only an animal of the tundra and birch forests can when transported to a shopping mall.Andes native
In Peru vast herds of alpacas roam the high Andes. Of all the exotics that graze our fields, alpacas are the most widespread, but then who doesn't secretly covet these teddy bear animals with their comical faces and elegant legs? They are the first choice of smallholders and hobby farmers who have a few acres and want their own stock. Linda Heap of Old Hutton WI fell for the alpacas' charms in 2002 when she and her husband, John, moved from Bury to the Lake District. Now there are 17 'Little Eskrigg' alpacas about the place and eight more - crias as the babies are called - were expected in the spring.
The first alpacas were imported 25 years ago and they have gained steadily in popularity ever since. However they still inhabit the fringes of farming and because of this there is no equivalent to the British Wool Marketing Board. Owners must either sell the fibre to hand spinners, spin themselves or else join a co-operative to transform their fibre into yarn and cloth. Profit from alpacas still lies in the animals themselves for a pregnant female may sell for as much as £3,000.
Llamas may not be as common, but like their smaller, camelid cousins, they are in Britain to stay. Famously, a pair of llamas even found a home in the radio series The Archers and where fiction goes real life often follows. Pets they may be but llamas can be profitable, especially when they take up their traditional job of pack animal. Moira and Alastair Fraser's llamas have been trekking through the ancient Forest of Dean for five years and the forest community has taken them to their heart. The llamas invariably begin their trek from the historic Speech House Hotel where Moira is General Manager. In Wrexham's Ty Mawr park Laurence is a 'municipal llama' with a purpose - guarding the park's flocks of rare sheep from attacks by foxes at lambing time.
The Smiths of Castle Caereinion are one farming family that has taken the concept of diversification to heart. Steve and Helen Smith farm 600 acres in Welsh border country with 1,500 ewes and 90 suckler cows, but the sign outside the old farmhouse reads "Mid-Wales Falconry Centre". This is diversification on an altogether wilder scale.
Just about every WI group in the area, including Helen's own, has gone along for an evening out watching the birds fly high to the lure before returning to the great barn and tucking in to Helen's homemade cooking. Cheep, the Great Grey owl, is undoubtedly the favourite, not only of the visitors but of Helen too. Cheep arrived as a 14-day-old chick and was, so Helen says, the ugliest baby that she had ever seen. Not any more, for she is the most charming of all the centre's birds of prey.
For farmers willing to diversify, water buffalo offer one way forward. Farmers like Tony and Liz Dawson say that they are healthy and long lived and best of all, their milk can be sold at a premium. The Dawsons hit the headlines in 2000 when their farmhouse, on the banks of the river Severn, became a small and very crowded island. Sheep nibbled the wallpaper on the landing and water buffalo calves were brought into the kitchen.
The first dozen water buffalo were imported from Eastern Europe in 1991 by Bob Palmer who went on to form a co-operative to sell the milk and meat. The pioneering farmers who have taken up water buffalo have teamed up with equally enterprising cheesemakers such as Ribblesdale in Yorkshire who, in turn, make classic mozzarella by heating the curds that is then spun into the familiar balls of cheese. If there is still a long way to go before buffalo steaks are on everyone's shopping list, there is a small but growing interest in these animals and a great demand for fresh buffalo mozzarella with all the taste of Italian cheese but without the air miles.
Our countryside may now echo to the barking grunt of a water buffalo but these animals are simply part of a very long tradition of introductions. Don't forget that the Normans introduced the rabbit to these shores, setting up artificial warrens in which they bred. Of course the rabbits quickly spread far and wide - not all introductions have stayed within the confines of the parks where they have been bred. Reeve's Muntjak deer, natives of China and Taiwan, are a case in point. Now these small, tusked deer with their sharp, barking call can be found throughout Britain's southern counties.Almost extinct
Pere David's deer, on the other hand, are so rare they are unlikely ever to colonize these islands. These Chinese deer roam Woburn Abbey's 3,000 acres [3 JPEGs] in the company of nine other species, but what sets Pere David's deer apart is their brush with extinction and triumphant return to their native land. It is a story which is intimately entwined with the lives of the Dukes of Bedford, a Jesuit missionary and a Chinese zoologist.
Long before they ever took his name, Peter David's water-loving deer waded through the swamps of central China. Unfortunately for the deer their habitat dwindled until the only herd left was ensconced behind the 42-mile wall surrounding the Imperial Hunting Park near Beijing. Then in 1865 fate took a hand: a curious Jesuit missionary persuaded the Tartar guards to let him look over the wall. What he saw was an animal that was unknown to the Western world and one that the Chinese themselves found extraordinary, calling it sze pu shiang, which translates as "none of the four". To Chinese eyes it has the neck of a camel, the hooves of a cow, the tail of a donkey and the antlers of a deer.
Pere Armand David managed to obtain two skins and as he had hoped, they excited naturalists in France. Through diplomatic means the French obtained a gift of two live animals. Although they did not survive the sea journey, the way was open for more diplomatic gifts to England and Germany that, fortunately, survived. In 1895 floods broke through the park wall sweeping away all but 20or so deer and these, sad to say, were swiftly eaten during the Boxer Rebellion six years later.
Alert to the danger of extinction, the 11th Duke of Bedford gathered together Europe's scattered specimens into a herd of 18 and from these animals all the Pere David's deer in existence have been bred. At the outbreak of the Second World War, mindful of the fate of the Imperial deer, the Duke scattered the herd and now they are represented in collections all over the world. Several herds now roam in China thanks to the 14th Duke of Bedford, an eminent Chinese zoologist, Professor Wang Zongyi, and Bratislava deer specialist, Maja Boyd, who together steered a diplomatic course to return some 22 deer to China in 1985.
Twenty years later, the present Duke travelled to China to see the deer in their native land and to witness the unveiling of his father's life-size statue. That the 14th Duke is the first foreigner to be so honoured says a great deal about the significance of his gift both to China and the world. It's a remarkable story of conservation and one that would not have been told if the Duke had kept only our native deer.
So will vast herds of water buffalo graze our meadows and will alpacas replace the sheep that graze our uplands? I very much doubt it but, they do offer a chance to diversify, to try something new and they certainly bring a touch of the exotic to our green and pleasant land.