Why a couple decided to farm alpacas at Belmesthorpe

Having begun married life in a three-bedroom semi with a 40-inch plasma TV, Rachel and Rufus Shoon have found their ideal, and it’s off-grid and surrounded by animals.

Not just a few cats and dogs - although they have these too - but 45 alpacas, three ‘micro’ pigs, a flock of rheas, several Soay sheep, a pair of geese, two male peacocks and numerous chickens.

Oh, and a llama.

The couple have no need for television shows, national news or social media. A week after the start of recent protests and rioting on the UK’s streets, Rufus had only just heard about it from a friend, and Rachel was equally astonished when her husband shared the bad news.

Their dramas, amusements and stories to tell come from the lifestyle they have adopted, and include anecdotes about building their home, running a solar-powered Dyson vacuum at half power, animal escapees - and acquisitions.

“We always had dogs, cats and fish,” said Rachel, surrounded at their home by four huge Rhodesian ridgeback dogs of varying ages and African names, and ‘Master Tiddy’, a relaxed-looking rescue cat.

“But we wanted to buy some land and live on it, and to do this we needed to prove we were keeping it as farmland.”

They found the right spot, south of Belmesthorpe, and waited until the crop that grew there was harvested before planting the area with grass seed and calling it Ridgeview Farm.

They bought six alpacas from a man who kept ‘about a thousand’, and each they took on was pregnant.

“They were a means to an end to start with,” said Rachel.

“Alpacas aren’t part of the food chain - not yet - and so don’t come with all the rules and regulations needed to keep cattle, sheep and pigs.

That was 15 years ago, and since then they have acquired sheep and pigs, although not particularly edible ones.

Their sheep are a Hebridean variety with impressive horns and an untamed temperament, which was supposedly brought to the Scottish island of Soay by Viking settlers more than 1,000 years ago.

The Shoons’ small flock started out as ewes and a single ram that they were assured was too young to breed.

“One April morning we woke up to find two lambs,” said Rufus.

The Soays they have now were all reared at the farm and despite being handled as youngsters remain “wild as hell and difficult to catch because they jump like kangaroos”.

Still, even the most feral of their animals are loved, and even the wayward sheep have names such as Deano, Clarence and Daisy.

Meanwhile, the three little pigs that live close to a public footpath cutting across the Shoon’s land started out as five ‘micro pig’ pets that weren’t as small as they should have been. Having outgrown their previous life, they were taken on by the couple.

After several years just one, Polly, was left from the original team, but since pigs are sociable beasts, a couple of hairy Kunekunes have now joined her from Copthill School in Uffington.

“The school had five Kunekunes, a New Zealand breed, and the children got on better with three of them, so two came to live with Polly,” explained Rachel.

Keeping pigs has been a learning curve. Having had a decent fruit harvest one year, Rachel gave away a good crop of pairs to be juiced for English perry, and had the pulp of the fruit returned as animal feed.

“I’d stored it in buckets and gave it to the pigs,” said Rachel.

“After the first day they were acting a little strangely. After a second they were all being very lazy - they barely came out of the shed.

“Suddenly I realised they were all ratted!”

After getting over a few sore heads, the pigs are now sticking to a more sober lifestyle.

Another exotic breed that can be glimpsed from the public footpath is the rhea. Sometimes called the South American ostrich, they have long legs and necks, feathery middles and the same prehistoric vibe as African ostriches and Australian emus.

Back in 2019 the couple had just two at the farm, Inca and Aztec, and Inca made headlines by escaping.

On the run from July until December, he was spotted numerous times gliding through crop fields and proved near-impossible to capture.

He finally turned himself in when food became more scarce.

Rheas can have a long life in captivity, often clocking up more than 30 years, and at Ridgeview they live in a spacious field enclosure without predators, the females laying large clutches of enormous eggs that are kept warm under their chaps’ plumy bottoms.

While the other rheas leap to their feet to greet Rufus and a handful of lunch, Aztec remains resolutely grounded, hiding about a dozen giant eggs under his expansive derriere.

Next door are three fields for the alpacas, whose large, inquisitive eyes are framed by long lashes, and whose fleece is soft and lacks the greasy lanolin feel of sheep wool. The alpacas are sheared annually, with the resulting fibre sold, or used on the farm for spinning and weaving into a soft cloth, and more recently to insulate a workshed the couple have acquired.

The tamest of the alpacas share a field with an ageing, toothless llama that cuts a happy figure standing a good head-height above the herd.

The llama has, according to Rufus, a calming effect on the sometimes hotheaded alpacas, which can get into bickering with one another.

They can also be clumsy, it seems, and leg straps designed for ponies have had to be deployed on a couple of occasions - to treat Sabrina’s leg after she stumbled in a rabbit hole, and Jasper’s after he tripped on a pallet.

Looking after the farm takes up a lot of time for Rufus and Rachel. On waking around dawn, Rachel takes their four dogs for an hour-long walk, before the couple head off in different directions to each walk a half-loop of the farm, feeding, watering and checking on the animals.

The dogs, always by their sides, are ‘proper dogs’, Rachel says, referring to their sturdiness and substantial size.

“They’re athletic, independent and need a lot of walking. They’re not a beginner’s dog.”

On leaving the public footpath and coming onto the private property of the farm, the four dogs will meet any stranger with a nice line of intimidation. It’s only that Rachel was with them, offering reassurance to them and ‘the intruder’, that this article made it past the planning stage.

As well as any would-be trespassers, the Rhodesian ridgebacks see off foxes and badgers - small targets given the breed’s heritage once involved lion-hunting in Zimbabwe.

While Rufus and Rachel are soulmates and undoubtedly love their life off-grid together, there are a few niggles.

One is people straying from the footpath, which puts the wanderers and the animals in danger. They found one overindulgent parent showing their child farm machinery inside a barn, while groups have been spotted picnicking on their land, which brings litter and food waste.

People feeding the animals has caused unfortunate and uncomfortable deaths.

While their farm isn’t designed to be a visitor attraction, Rachel, who used to work at Dawson of Stamford jewellers, said she would much rather people send a WhatsApp message to make an appointment if they are curious, allowing them a couple of days to pick up any messages. After all, these aren’t folk glued to their mobile phones.

Another niggle, which can’t be helped, is the wind. The Shoons’ farm sits above the Gwash valley, and while it’s hardly hilly, it is exposed. Since buying the land they have planted perhaps a thousand trees to afford shelter, many donated, and are keen to receive more.

Rufus, who is managing director of RAM Systems, a digital card reader company that took over Deepings-based Ampy in 2009, grew up in Trinidad, the Caribbean island just off the coast of Venezuela. He describes his childhood home as surrounded by trees. The attractive wooden home they built on the farm, after six years in a caravan and a battle with the planning authority, is full of huge, tropical-style pot plants, while they have planted fruit trees in the garden and even grow apricots.

“If people want to make an appointment to visit the farm we wouldn't charge anything, but they could always bring a tree with them,” said Rufus with a smile.

To speak to Rufus and Rachel about making an appointment, send a message on WhatsApp to 07540 327393.