Royal offers plenty of face time with cows, goats and llamas
Heather Jewitt, seen here with one of the llamas, came to the Royal to teach visitors about them and their wool.
STORY BY JENNIFER STIENSTRA
City and country life come together once a year at the annual Royal Agricultural Winter Fair, giving visitors an opportunity to learn about farm life and animals.
One of the many farmers at the Royal, Chloe Gresel, educates attendees about what she does and about her animals.
“I really like to come and talk to city people that have no idea or anything about what farmers do or anything about cows and teach them what we do,” said Gresel, whose family has a farm outside Georgetown.
Gresel talks to visitors about cows’ multiple stomachs and their process of digestion, such as regurgitating their food and digesting it again, as well as what they’re fed, using a model of a stomach to display the process.
It isn’t just cows that come to the Royal, there are goats, pigs, alpacas and llamas, too.
Laurel Scott, one of the visitors to the Royal and the owner of a horse farm in Sudbury, enjoys coming to the fair.
“I like looking at all of the other animals because we only have horses on our farm. I get here and I always want to look at the goats and all of the other animals, the poultry, the cows I just think it’s so neat,” said Scott.
One of the llama farmers from Delhi County, Heather Jewitt, says she looks forward to talking to Royal visitors.
“I love standing here and educating the public about the llamas,” she said.
Her job also involves demonstrating the difference among llama wool, alpaca wool and sheep wool. She said that llama wool and alpaca wool are seven times warmer than sheep wool.
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“City people ask me if it is a llama or if it is an alpaca, sometimes I get them telling me it’s a camel and I’m like, ‘No it’s not,’ ” Jewitt joked.
Education about the animals and farming is a big aspect of the fair, with farmers setting up booths and displays and answering the questions visitors have.
Jewitt recommends people should see the animals and learn about them at the Royal.
The Royal featured an assortment of animals including cows, goats and pigs and the chance to learn more about them.
“If they’re from the city, they should come into the barn and the education centre so they can learn about the animals because I know that a lot of people don’t get to see these animals that often,” she said.
“It’s entertainment and education. It’s really neat to see all of the different things that are out there that we don’t normally ever see or are ever exposed to,” said Scott.
