Ducks in a row: Vergenoegd Löw Wine Estate’s unique workforce [watch]

Nestled between the Helderberg Mountains and False Bay, Vergenoegd Löw The Wine Estate is one of the oldest working farms in South Africa with a rich heritage. The wine estate is not only famous for its range of award-winning wines – it is home to a working flock of 1,600 Indian Runner ducks that form part of a natural pest control solution on the farm, keeping the bugs at bay.

Eco-friendly solution to pest control

Vergenoegd has been refining its approach to ecological pest control, biodiversity, and sustainability since 1983 and their flock of merry ducks is one of the farm’s eco-friendly solutions to pest control and fertilizer production.

A Vergenoegd wine estate employee shepherds a trained duck-herd of approximately 1000 Indian Runner ducks as a tourist watches, at Vergenoegd wine estate near Stellenbosch. Image: Rodger Bosch/AFP

Gavin Moyes, the estate’s tasting room manager explains that they serve as natural pest control. He says they love eating snails and mosquito larvae, which is a fantastic natural way of pest control and when they defecate on the field, their dung helps the vines grow. Moyes says it’s helping the estate in its quest towards becoming 100% pesticide and fertilizer-free.

Vergenoegd’s daily duck parade

One of the top attractions at the farm is the daily duck parade and shouldn’t be missed! Every day, the gate between the estate and the duck residences is opened, and the flock of ducks (and the odd goose or two) march along a fenced path, all the way to the fields to tuck into a feast of snails.

The spectacle is wondrous and heart-warming – hundreds of slender ducks walking upright rather than waddling on their way to work.  

And then there are the geese ‘bodyguards’…

The geese, Moyes explains, are the duck’s bodyguards. The geese take on the role of the duck’s protectors, as they have no defence mechanism. According to Moyes, the geese go mad when an owl or a mongoose approaches and scares them away. A perfect natural relationship.

The ducks even have a daily routine. They march to work at 10:30am every morning and spend the day gobbling up snails, and other pests, and then return to their home around the estate’s lake where they live in small flocks and dedicated full-time carers.

The Vergenoegd ducks hard at work. Image: Rodger Bosch/ AFP

Annual leave for ducks

Moyes explains that they even get annual leave, each year around harvest time, so they don’t eat the juicy grapes instead of the snails. However, they still go on the duck parade each day as ducks love routine and their keepers allow them onto a large grassy patch, where they feed them treats and put the sprinklers on for them if no rain is forecast.

Premium wines and picnics

Vergenoegd Löw The Wine Estate produces a range of white, rosé, and red wines, but is best known for premium red wines, such as their Shiraz, Merlot, Malbec, and Cabernet Sauvignons. The estate has a lovely farm deli that sells all sorts of delicious farm-fresh and homemade goodies, and gourmet picnic baskets can be ordered and enjoyed on the lawns next to the historic Cape Dutch Manor House and werf.

Visit the Vergenoegd Löw The Wine Estate website here.