Meet the Team

Meet The Team

Humans

MARY and her late husband David bought Catanger in 1992 when it was a 40 acre field of wheat. Together they planted 20 acres of native woodland starting 1992, completing in 1998. They originally kept Highland Cattle and Angora goats but llamas took over after the Foot and Mouth outbreak in 2001. The trekking started in 1998 and breeding has always been an important part of the business. In 2014, Sarah took over the trekking enterprise allowing Mary to concentrate on running the farm, breeding and training of llamas and grandparent duties.

SARAH being originally from Northamptonshire was looking to relocate back from working as a pig farmer in West Sussex. In 2012 she worked part time for Mary & David for a year to see if she wanted to take on the trekking side of the business. She loved the llamas and they loved her, so in April 2014 she took over the trekking business and has doubled the number of visitors. Sarah also assists Mary with all the breeding and training side of the farm too.

RYAN came to work at Catanger when he was 12 years old, accompanied by his dad he would clean out the barns at the weekends. His one ambition was to attend Moulton College of Agriculture, his aim to work with cattle. He attended Billing Brook School which caters for pupils with special needs and at 16 years old he embarked on a 2 year course at Moulton. By this time he was working unaccompanied for a 1/2 day at weekends. As a student, he was able to come and help at Catanger for 2 days a week and has become a valuable member of our team. He is responsible for keeping our paddocks in good order as well as the barns. His other duties include fence maintenance, mowing, gardening an making sure all the llamas have hay. He has always had a wonderful rapport with the animals so now he also helps Sarah on treks and can probably answer all the llama questions asked of him.

ABBIE originally came llama trekking with some friends and just kept on coming back, realising her love of being around llamas, one day Sarah asked if she would like to stay for the afternoon trek and take out one of our little boys on training. Since then Abbie has been a real asset to the team and assists on treks throughout the year.