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Retreat in silence, following alpha male on farm (6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

ashram

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'retreat' is the definition.
(type of religious retreat)

'silence following alpha male on farm' is the wordplay.
'silence' becomes 'sh' ('sh' is said to tell someone to be silent).
'following' says to put letters next to each other.
'alpha' becomes 'a' (phonetic alphabet: alpha, bravo, charlie etc.).
'male on farm' becomes 'ram' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'sh' put after 'a' is 'ash'.
'ash'+'ram'='ASHRAM'

'in' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for ashram that I've seen before include "Place for religious retreat (in India)" , "Guru's community" , "Commune" , "Hindu place of retreat" , "Hindu retreat house" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.
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