Why Farmers Use Donkeys to Protect Livestock....Meet Tammy The Terror!

Everybody tells me Tammy needs a friend. One donkey will run with the cows. Two donkeys, they'll be off somewhere. They form their own donkey herd. You want that girl to do her job? Keep her with the cows and let her think she's a cow. She ain't got no mirror. She don't know no better. Hey folks, welcome back to the Stony Ridge Farm. Just rolled out a bail of hay to the cows. Beautiful, not so beautiful, muddy month day here in March on the Stony Ridge Farm. We're dropping baby calves. We're on 10 baby calves right now. And I just happened to see I think one of mama's waters just broke and we're going to have another calf. And what we're here to talk to you about today is Tammy. Tammy is our guard donkey. We're going to walk up here and visit with Tammy and I'm going to show you what she's all about and what a guard donkey is because a lot of people ask me questions about Tammy. You can see the calves running around back here. This is Tammy. You can barely see her. She's kind of camouflaged into the uh landscape right here. But Tammy is a guard donkey. What Tammy does is protects the calves. So, I don't know whether you guys know it or not, but donkeys don't like dogs and they don't like coyotes and they don't like foxes. They don't like the predators of our baby calves. So, what Tammy does, her sole purpose in life is to protect that baby right there. That's what she does. She's out here in the pasture. Isn't that a cutie? She's out here in the pasture and she's protecting the babies. There are a few things you need to know about a guard donkey like Tammy. Tammy is not very friendly. If I walk up to Tammy, she's going to run away, but she is here to protect these baby calves from any kind of predator. If you get a donkey and you think you're going to have a guard donkey magically appear out of just a regular donkey, you may be sadly mistaken. So, be sure if you do have a donkey that it was raised with cattle. So Tammy was born in a cow pasture with cows. Her mama was a guard donkey. She's a guard donkey. So you need to make sure if you have goats, you want to use a guard donkey with goats. Make sure that they're tolerant of goats. Okay. The hind legs on this animal right here will kill a dog. It'll kill a calf. It'll kill a goat. This girl right here looks like a sweetheart, but she is a vicious, vicious attacker of anything that were to come after these cows. And it's super important. Now, I get a lot of comments from folks saying, "I need a hering dog out here to help me herd my cattle. I got about 50 cows back here." I say cows, cows, steers, bulls, whatever. Boine animals that are out here and they want me to get a dog so that I can run the cows with them. Well, we use low stress animal handling techniques here. And these cows will follow me anywhere I go. Even if they get out of the pasture, all I have to do is walk up and I go, "Woo!" and they all start mooing and coming towards me. They will probably Look, the whole herd's shifting right now coming toward me. So, it's all about low stress animal handling, but it's also about Tammy doing her job. Since I've gotten Tammy, I have not lost a calf to a predator. I've never lost a calf to a predator. I have lost calves to two different things. We had a bumper crop of acorns a couple years back, and you have to be very, very wary of putting your calves or your younger animals in with a bumper crop of acorns. The calves, the acorns have tannins in them, and the calves will consume them. I don't care if the calf is a month old or if it's 6 months old. If it's under about 600 lb and it over consumes the acorns that are on the ground, it will kill the calf. What it does is it causes a problem with their digestive system. A cow has a multi-chambered stomach. They are herbivores. They're not grainores and they're not nuttoores. So, we lost a calf to that. And we also lost a two-day old calf due to some unforeseen health issue that we just could not put our finger on. We still don't know what the heck happened. That calf was born. It seemed to be healthy, but obviously it had a birth defect. That's the only two calves that we've lost on the farm. So, do I recommend you get a guard donkey? Yes. Do people tell me all the time, you need a livestock guardian dog out here for the cows? Yeah, they tell me that. And I tell them, the cows hate dogs. They absolutely hate them. A cat rolls out into this pasture, the cows are on it quick. A coyote rolls out in the pasture, the cows and the donkey are on it quick. A fox runs out in the pasture or even a skunk. The other day we had a skunk in the pasture. They learn real quick not to approach a skunk. But these cows will kick any animal's butt that comes out here in the pasture. I also get people telling me because I've had a coyote problem and a fox problem over here in my chicken coupe. They tell me, "Well, you need a guard donkey for them chickens." No, no, no, no, no, no. Guard donkey and chickens don't go together. Also, livestock guardian dog. You better have them trained as a pup to be around chickens because they get hungry and everything likes chicken. The donkey will kill the chickens. The chicken will walk up behind the donkey. Just one little boop of the back foot and that's the end of the chicken. So, I don't recommend you put a guard donkey with your chickens. And I don't recommend a livestock guardian dog unless it's ultra ultra well-trained and has a proven history of life with poultry. I do recommend getting some guard geese. That will help. So, hopefully that clarifies things. We got the cows out here eating. We got Tammy and that's Spaz running around with her new baby. And Tammy's as calm as a kitten. But rest assured, when I had my German Shepherds and I would come out here in the pasture, the German Shepherds knew not to enter the pasture. And if they did, Tammy would be on them so fast. And so would these cows. Cows are robust animals. They're very strong and they will hurt you. These are 1,600 lb kittens when they want to be. and they're well 12 to,600lb kittens when they want to be and they're 12-,600 lb instruments of death. If you don't know what you're doing, don't turn your back on your bull. Keep an eye on your cows. Get yourself a nice guard donkey if you're having some predator issues and you should have no problems. But be sure be sure that that donkey was raised with cattle and try and get a female donkey if you can. Male donkeys are much more aggressive. They will bite the tail off of your cow. They will bite the ear off of your cow. They will bite anything off of a cow. Ask me how I know. Tammy had a baby out here probably three years ago. And that baby was a male. It was trying to breed her and it was biting the cows. It was harassing the cows. So, try and get a female if you can. Why doesn't Tammy have a friend out here? Everybody tells me Tammy needs a friend. One donkey will run with the cows. two donkeys, they'll be off somewhere. They form their own donkey herd. So, you want your cows with your donkey. You want your donkey with your cows. And you don't need two or three or four because you'll have a herd of donkeys and a herd of cows. You want that girl to do her job. Keep her with the cows and let her think she's a cow. She ain't got no mirror. She don't know no better. Thank you guys. We'll see you next time. Be sure you subscribe. Click that little bell icon. It'll notify you when I post a new video. We'll see you next time on the Stony Ridge. Wish this new mama luck. We're going to have another baby today. >> Come on down [music and singing] to the stony bring. That's the way it's supposed to be. Stony ridge. Get him. Tammy. Tammy. I'd like to talk to you about your car insurance. Come on. This ain't farming. I don't know what is. This is real life. Real stuff. Go around there, please. Now, go back that way. That's the way. That's the perfect way. Gosh. There you go, Tammy girl. There. It's a trick. Don't worry. I'm I'm after you. I'm probably going to come right after you. Go, you turd. >> Good girl, Tanny.