A farmer has found a crafty way to get his flock of 10,000 turkeys home safely each night – by teaching his sheepdogs to herd them.<br /><br />Steve Childerhouse, 47, said his two border collies had a surprising “natural instinct” to round up the game birds, which are destined for British dinner tables this Christmas.<br /><br />The ex-shepherd, who has worked in agriculture for 35 years, says canines Pip and Tilly can bring the feisty fowl to heel in 45 minutes at his award-winning Norfolk farm.<br /><br />And despite the slightly unusual appearances, Steve says his well-trained sheepdogs view herding the festive birds as just another “job to do”. <br /><br />He said: “We had the dogs for sheep, and obviously they’ve got that instinct to round up, so as soon as they see the turkeys, they do that as well.<br /><br />“As they’re farm dogs, they know they’ve got a job to do.”<br /><br />Steve said that when he began using rescue dogs Pip and Tilly, both five, to herd the turkeys at Whews Farm in Norfolk, they were initially a little “frightened”.<br /><br />But after a few attempts, the hounds began to get to grips with the task of controlling the massive flock.<br /><br />He said: “They were a bit intimidated by them, in a way. <br /><br />“Tilly was a bit frightened of them. You sort of had to put a lead on her and drag her into them. <br /><br />“But after a week or two, they got to know what they needed to do.”<br /><br />The two border collies have their work cut out on Steve’s 35-acre estate as he uses “old-fashioned”, free-range methods to cultivate his birds.<br /><br />During the day, the turkeys are allowed to roam through a mixture of woodland and grassland, where they enjoy a fairly “natural” existence.<br /><br />But as evening draws in, Pip and Tilly have to guide the 10,000-strong flock into a large wooden barn where they’re safe from predators, under Steve’s watchful eye.<br /><br />He said: “We’ve got a lot of woodlands, so they live naturally out there – as natural as we can have them, really – while keeping them secure from foxes.<br /><br />“Previously, we had been shutting them in ourselves, but the border collies are very gentle at herding them.”<br /><br />While his dogs can keep the large birds in check most of the time, Steve says there are occasions when the turkeys will gang up on Tilly and Pip.<br /><br />He said: “There’s the odd time when you’ll be watching them, and the turkeys will be chasing the dog.<br /><br />“It’s quite funny when you’re watching it. The older the turkeys get, the more they’ll stand up to them.<br /><br />Though Steve’s methods may seem unorthodox, he says he’s not the only member of the farming community who has managed to train dogs to round up Turkeys.<br /><br />He said: “We’re not the only people who use dogs – there are others. But for us, it’s just normal.”<br /><br />It’s estimated that people across the UK will eat 10 million turkeys during the festive period.<br /><br />The tradition of eating the large game birds, native to North America, is believed to stretch back to the reign of Henry VIII.
