By Caleb Regan, Managing Editor
Day 1 at the 2011 Mother Earth News Fair in Seven Springs Pennsylvania
offered the chance to mingle with livestock, speak with animal owners, and
listen to presentations from leaders in the animal husbandry world.
My own responsibilities, helping at the American Livestock
Breeds Conservancy's Animal Husbandry Tent, meant I was assembling poultry and
rabbit cages, leading ponies to pens, and even in once case carrying a
non-halterbroke sheep from a trailer to her pen about 50 yards away.
Some of the coolest things from this Fair, for me: talking
with livestock owners of various animals, and even getting to know individual
breeds; it offers one of the few chances in this business to have a direct
interface with readers, and it’s refreshing to hear about their homes, farms, gardens, animals and lives;
seeing speakers like Pat Foreman, Carol Ekarius, Harvey Ussery, and Joel
Salatin, not to mention the presentations given by my own colleagues at Ogden
Publications; a refreshing chance to get to know those colleagues better,
outside of our office cubicles.
This video was a quick interview with Anne Hallowell of
Mercer County Pennsylvania. The Hallowells raise Classic Llamas, impressive
multipurpose animals that perform well as guardian animals, companions, and
most notably pack animals. I’d never seen a pack rig like this for a llama, and
the idea of using this animal to pack up for a camping trip and then employ
that animal to protect the campsite on that trip is pretty cool.
It’s inspiring to interact with Fair-goers, exhibitors, and
presenters alike.