Community & Business
3 April, 2022
Guinea pig army put to work
HIDDEN away off the grid in the bush of Springmount, an army of guinea pigs are labouring away to get rid of weeds in between fruit trees – all a part of local farmer John Gargan’s “crazy idea”.
The Mutchilba farmer had the epiphany one night while trying to figure out how he could make his fruit trees more sustainable.
He had already tried using cows but their hooves eroded the ground and geese would eat away at the crops he didn’t want touched.
That’s when he had his “crazy idea” – guinea pigs.
“I just thought it up myself, I haven’t seen it done anywhere and I thought to myself ‘they’re nice little critters that don’t burrow and don’t climb and are easy to control’,” he said.
“I also knew the guinea pigs would eat a lot of grass and weeds and I thought because we live biodynamic and don’t use any herbicides, insecticides or chemicals, it would be a great way to control them.
Mr Gargan is deeply connected with the land and does not agree with the use of chemicals in the farming industry, making him what is called a biodynamic farmer.
“Everything is supposed to be in the living realm, so you don’t kill stuff. We don’t use chemicals and we use nature for fertilisation, and it seems to be working because we’ve had some good crops this year,” he said.
With the knowledge of biodynamics, he created a syntropic fruit farm, combining different tropical fruits along a row and letting the guinea pigs roam in around the grassy floor beneath.
Each line of syntropic farming has a dozen or so different fruits growing between each other, ranging from mangoes to bananas to mulberries.
The furry little critters have already proven themselves useful, with a drastic difference between the areas without them and the areas they control.
“Grass and weeds want to get through the trees, and we can get runners that are up to eight foot long and it’s a big job pulling them out,” Mr Gargan said.
“You want to figure out how to do syntropic without doing a huge amount of labour because it can be intense, and you want to avoid as much hard labour as possible.
“The guinea pigs do all that hard work – they turn up to work every day and like doing it and you don’t have to pay them superannuation.”
As well as the 60 guinea pigs, Mr Gargan has a gaggle of very chatty geese and an extended family of cows which also provide for their farm by taking and giving back to the land.
He has a special connection with all the animals and his farmland, and he is able to call for both the guinea pigs and the geese to which they respond.
With a high pitched “Tiki tiki tiki”, the armada of guinea pigs squeak back and come to his feet in the hopes of an extra feed.
And with a call “goooosey”, the flock of gaggling geese honk back from the river and give a show of their fabulous white feathers.
“They’re nice little characters, we get to know each other and see all their little personalities,” Mr Gargan said.
Now, Mr Gargan has big plans to keep his syntropic biodynamic farm growing strong and the guinea pigs as well fed as ever.
“It’s all a big experiment – I had to do some trials in fencing that would keep them in,” he said.
“My latest idea is to make a fence that will hold the geese, guinea pigs and cows together so that way I am not building three fences and have the option of three animals in the crops.”
