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Me, The Police & Dexters Part 7
Posted on Nov 01, 2009 at 01:31 PM
(This is going to be the last chapter in my series call Me The Police &Dexters. The reason for this will become apparent as you read on.
I have tried to be fair to all parties mentioned in this chapter and have tried to be objective as I can be in the circumstances.
Thank you all for your support in reading this series of stories and I hope you enjoy this last episode. Thank you Al)
The snow of early February had gone as soon as it had come, I had to go back to work, a little sore after my sledging on the 2nd. Not only had the snow brought the whole of the southeast to a standstill Pancake had also decided it was far to cold to have her calf. So the long waiting game started with me going over to the field every couple of hours to check on the girls, and when I was a work Tracey was going over. Mark and I had set up lighting in the barn a few months earlier so we had light which was a god send. Two weeks past and still no sign of the calves in fact it was Isabella that look likely to give birth first. We (Tracey and I), where still doing 2 hourly checks on the girls during the night.
On the 18th of February, I had been on a late turn and on my way home popped over to the field to check on the girls before going to bed. It was about 2220 when I got there, it was a clear cold night, the sort of night when you could see your breath. The first thing that greeted me was the sound of one of the girls bellowing, a sure sign she was giving birth. I ran to the shed and plugged in the extension lead that I had rigged up, as we had no direct power in the barn, I then ran to the barn. As I opened the door I saw Pancake standing with he back to me her sides squeezing in steam rising from her back and a little calf just born lying on the straw behind her. I walked into the barn making reassuring noises and telling her what a good girl she was. Pancake looked fine, the calf still had a lot of mucus around his face, I cleared the calf's face and he took a breath and tried to stand, stumbling about. He was jet black and looked to have good form, a nice straight back. I phoned Tracey to let her know we had a calf, and then tried to get hold of Mark, I phoned his mobile, the normal number I contacted him on, but the phone was turned off, after several attempts I left a message on his answer phone. I was a little surprised to find the mobile turned off, as I had had spoken to mark and told him that the birth was going to happen sooner rather than later and that I may need him to come down if we had any problems. Still nothing had gone wrong in fact we had a healthy calf.
I spoke to mark the next day and he said that his phone had been playing up and that he hadn't got the message until that morning.
A couple of days later Mark came over to have a look at the new arrival, I had by this stage registered the calf and arranged for Keith to come over and help us band and tag the calf.
Mark told me that he wouldn't be able to come over on the day that I had arrange for Keith to come over as he had made other arrangements, this was becoming a bit of a pattern. It seemed that every time something big had to be done Mark had made other arrangements. Unfortunately there are things that have to be done when you own/raise livestock and occasionally you have to make sacrifices. I never expected Mark to be over the field every day but I did expect him to be there when I needed him, and he rarely was.
Right from the beginning Mark had made excuses not to be there when needed, but in my excitement to get things up and running I had made excuses for him. He hadn't been there when I first went to meet Sue, he wasn't there when I went to meet David and Keith to buy the stock, he wasn't there when I had tried twice to blue tongue them or when I went to pick up the crush and then pick up four loads of hay (60 bales at a time) There had been someone there on all these occasions, someone that had helped when the boys got out, someone who had arrange for me to use a 4X4 and trailer to pick all this stuff up, Tim. Tim had been there every time I needed him or to put it another way had been there every time I needed Mark, but Mark had been unable to get there due to some other prior engagement. On two previous occasions I had questioned Mark's commitment to the project and both times he had assured me he was totally committed, and that once his move to Royalty happened he would have more time to help out. (Mark was transferring departments within the Police and his shift would change from an eight hour shift pattern to a twelve hour one, giving him more days off)
Isabella was still holding on to her calf, I think she had seen Pancake give birth and had decided that it looked a bit painful so she would hold on until the last minute.
I continued to do 2 hourly checks on her at night and between Tracey and I we kept her under good observation.
On the 28th February I was on an early turn and arrived at the field at about 1500 hours, again it was obvious that something was happening I could here bellowing coming from the barn. I went to the shed and turned on the lights although it was still light enough to see without it. I then went to the barn and could see Isabella standing there eating hay, while Pancake was pacing up and down bellowing, and winding up big boy (last years steer), I could see that Isabella's waters had broken but there was still no sign of the calf, I phoned mark on his home number and told him what was going on, he said that there seemed little point in his coming over as he would have to get through rush hour traffic and by the time he got there the calf would be born, I had to agree with him it was un likely he would make it in time. I told him I would keep him informed and decided to ring Keith as I wasn't happy that Isabella still showed no sign of calving although her waters had broke.
On speaking to Keith he agreed it was very unusual and that he would expect her to be lying down and pushing if the waters had broken. He told me to keep an eye on her and if nothing had happened in the next 15 minutes give him a call back and he would come over.
I phoned Mark back and was telling him what Keith had said, it was then that I noticed that Isabella had mud all down her right hand side, it was like someone had just punched me in the face, that wasn't her broken waters I could see it was afterbirth, she had given birth, that is why she was eating, and the calf was in trouble that was why Pancake was going mad. I ran through the barn, Pancake was throwing her head about and making a lot of noise, I ran out into the small yard at the back of the barn but could see no calf, the area was secure there was barbed wire on three sides and a stream on the other. I turned to the stream and there on her knees was a little calf, shivering and soaking wet, I leapt into the stream and pulled her out, rushed her back into the barn and started to dry her with hay and straw, I grabbed hold of her and started to rub the afterbirth over her back to try and get a smell onto her that her mother would recognise and accept. I had already phoned Tracey and she was on her way over. I put the calf back into the pen with Isobella and left them to bond, keeping an eye on them from outside the barn. I phoned Keith and explained what had happened, and he said that I had done the right thing and that isobella would take to the calf in time and not to worry. I couldn't believe what an idiot I had been to not fence that part of the yard properly. Issobella must have gone outside to give birth and the calf must have tried to get to her feet and stumbled into the stream. Unable to get her out Issobella had gone back into the barn delivered her afterbirth and then started to eat to get her strength back. Meanwhile Pancake the dominant cow had taken up the mantle to alert me of the danger, something I had ignored.
I contacted mark again it was now about 1730ish and again said he could see any point in coming over, I was too tired to argue.
Tracey and I stayed down the field until about 2300, and only when we were sure that the calf was feeding properly did we leave and go home. The following morning I got up at 3am and went to work, exhausted.
I arranged for Keith to come over and check the calf out for me and to help me tag her, again Mark had something else on so couldn't make it.
By this time I was feeling absolutely drained I had spent the last month working in London and getting up ever 2 hours to check on the girls, now that all the excitement was over it hit me, I was exhausted, and feeling very ill. I took a week off work, but still had to run the smallholding.
I contacted Mark and asked if he could come over on one of his rest days to help clear the stream of all the winter windfall that had helped top block the stream in places. He agreed and the cancelled at the last minute leaving me and Tracey to do it which was fun, I had by now developed sickness and diarrhoea, so between shovelling and clearing I was being sick and shi... well you get the picture. We cleared the stream and a few days later Mark turned up and helped me clear the bushes that had overgrown the stream last summer.
By now it was well into march and the calves were growing well, getting bigger by the day, the grass was coming back into the field, so I decided to let the herd out. That was a great moment. They all ran around the field leaping and jumping, the calves were exploring every inch of the field under the watchful eye of there mothers and me, it was a real vision of spring. There was blossom on the trees, the sun was getting warmer, and I had five cows running about in the field. life doesn't get any better.
I had seen our first winter come and go survived the worst snow in over 20 years in our part of the country, and had two beautiful calves. That although were destined for the freezer, would have 30 months of good living and I would have raised my own meat from birth right through to the final stages. Now some people may think that that is a morbid thought, looking at your calves and thinking of the freezer, but that is the reason I started this project, to know were my food comes from, and having eaten the first steer I had raised I knew it would be well worth it.
Easter was fast approaching, the weather was getting warmer and everything seemed to be going well. Mark had started his new job and seemed to be enjoying it,
Then on Good Friday at about 4 in the afternoon, I got a phone call from Mark, he said that he was going to have to pull out for personal reasons, stating that he was unable to continue his financial commitment to the business.
(This would have been a total shock if I had not heard a couple weeks before, through a third party, that Mark was considering withdrawing from the business as he was going to move department, and wanted a new start. When I had challenged this person they had stated that they had probably gotten hold of the wrong end of the stick. At the time I thought no more of it, as every time I had questioned Marks commitment to the business he had reassured me he was fully committed. As you can imagine after the phone call I was a little sceptical as to his reasons for pulling out)
Mark suggested that I could buy him out and continue on my own. I listened to what he had to say, and because I had had a drink, told him that I would have to speak to Tracey and that I would call him on Tuesday as there was little I could do until then.
I came off the phone and told Tracey about the phone call, she was less than impressed by the whole situation. We sat down and started to work out the costs of keeping the business going ourselves.
The problem was that we had had to pay out over the winter for feed and bedding, and we had a sizable overdraft on the business account already. However we approached it, we could not see how we could keep going without Marks financial support, and still have meat for our own freezer. The only way we would be able to do it was to sell the next 3 cows after slaughter, but this would mean spending the next 2 years raising beef to sell with no beef for our own freezer. The whole project had been set up to supply 2 families with enough beef for ourselves with a little bit to sell on. Even if we did decided to do this, we had not taken into account any other financial burden such as medical, maintenance of fencing or more grazing land. So after spending the weekend trying to work out how we could keep things going we came to the conclusion it would be impossible to continue with the project in its current form, even if Mark and I could agree a price for the buyout.
On Tuesday I phoned Mark and it became apparent that we were not going to agree on what the business was worth. Mark was under the impression that our assets included the field, fencing, barn, water supply as well as the livestock. I explained that everything apart from the livestock and cattle crush belonged to Sue, and as part of our rental agreement with Sue, we had agreed to put up fencing, supply water and maintain the field for her. In return we got the field for a nominal rent (£1 per year). We then discussed the value of the livestock, and again had very different ideas of their value; Mark thought that the 2 calves would get the same price at sale as the steer and 2 heifers, I explained that this was not the case. In the end it became clear that we were not going to agree on the value of our assets, so we agreed that the only way forward would be to sell the Livestock and crush, pay off the overdraft and spilt the difference.
I spoke to Keith to ask his advice about the situation, and he agreed with me that the only assets we had were the cattle and the cattle crush. He advised me to advertise the herd as a whole and offered to place them on his website. I also advertised them in Smallholder Magazine and through the local press. Within a couple of weeks we had had interest from a local couple who had a 14 acre smallholding near West Chiltington, Sussex.
Andrea and her husband came round and we agreed a price for the sale of the Dexters and the cattle crush.
A week later they turned up and the Dexters were loaded onto the back of their trailer, and the dream was over.
After all expenses were taken out, we walked away with just over £25 each.
As Mark put it "Not a lot to show for all our hard work!" Mmmm
I didn't care how much money we came out with, my dream had been shattered, Tracey and I had worked day and night on the smallholding and it had been taken away and there was nothing we could do about it.
It has taken me a long time to come to terms with the whole situation but, with hindsight, I should have seen the signs. Mark and I had only known each other for a short time, and although at the time it seemed to both of us that we had the same dreams, it became apparent that we had very different ideas of what this dream would mean in reality. I knew what was entailed in running a smallholding, I had seen it first hand at my cousin Gary's place in Cornwall, I knew how much hard work was needed to raise my own livestock. Mark, had never seen it first hand, and although I don't think he thought it was going to be like the "Good Life" he never really realised how much work and commitment was needed, and by the time he did realise it was too late, and from that point onwards was looking for an excuse to get out..
Since the sale of the cattle I have continued to grow my own veg and make my own wine, the chickens are still laying, and I have made some enquiries about Bee keeping, as well as speaking to Sue about the possibility of keeping a few pigs in the field.
Over the last 2 years I have learnt so much about running a smallholding and although for me it didn't work out this time, I don't regret a moment of it, okay maybe 1 moment.
One thing I have really enjoyed is the writing of these blogs/articles, and I am thinking about writing a book about my experiences.
I would like to thank Tracey for all her support and hard work. Tim for all his hard work and help when I needed it. Keith for all his advice and help and Sue, for allowing us to use her land and giving me a chance to live my dream. Lastly I would like to thank all of you for reading the blog.
The dream is not over it's just on hold.
Al Beazley November 2009
Me the Police & Dexters (part 6)
Posted on Feb 02, 2009 at 08:11 PM
The beef was in the freeze and Christmas was fast approaching. We had decided to give close family and friends, hampers for Christmas. So Tracey and I set about making Jam and chutney. I had the Sloe Gin & Vodka in the jars from last year's harvest, and after ordering some nice bottles; we transferred it and labelled it. I had also made some Clove & Ginger wine (a real winter warmer) which had been bottled and was sitting in the porch.
This would be the first year in a very long time that I had Christmas Day and Boxing Day off, and we were going to make the most of it.
We had a four rib in the freezer and this was going to be Christmas dinner.
Christmas Day came and we all woke up feeling ill, still we were going to make the most of it colds or not.
I went down the field and broke the ice on the water trough and after feed the Dexter's (and wishing them a merry Christmas) I left to return home. Dinner was on and by the time we sat down we had had a few glasses of wine and were feeling a little better. We didn't watch any telly but instead played games until it was time for bed.
The field was very wet and we had decided that to save what little grass we had and for the sake of the cows feet we would barn them over winter. I had already picked up 50 bales of hay & 15 bales of straw, with the help of Tim and his father-in-laws trailer. Mark came down and we fitted a water trough in the barn and fenced a small area off outside so the Dexter's could go out if they wanted to. All this done I set about building partitions in the barn so that we could separate the girls once they started calving.
On new years day I went over to Keith's place and arrived just after one of his Aberdeen Angus heifers had given birth to a lovely bull calf. The calf was trying to stand and after about twenty minutes with help from his mum he managed to stand and to start suckling. Fantastic!
I had gone to Keith's to enquire about ear tags and he gave me the number of the company he uses.
I contacted a DENIMAX. (Most suppliers deal in large quantities of tags or if they supply smaller amount they charge a premium. DENIMAX are very reasonable and I would recommend them for any smallholder.)
After giving them the CPH(County Parish Holding number) & Herd No they sent out the tags which I received the next working day.
After receiving these I also received passport applications from CTS (Cattle Tracking System), but as I do all my movements, births and deaths online I filed these just in case the computer go downs.
Mark and I had managed to get hold of some very sturdy pallets, some I put these in the barn to form dividing walls, to one of which I fitted a gate. There it was our first pen. Mark then came over and fitted a new stable type door and another internal gate, three pens in total, perfect!
I know what you are thinking, "this is all going far to well!"
Well yes, you're right, I don't know if it was the fact that they aren't used to Mark or they just didn't like his building skills, but the next day I went over to the field they had kicked seven bells out of the barn. They had knocked down the internal pallet wall, which had been standing for about 2 months and kicked all the gates of the hinges.
Laugh?
No I didn't!
The next day I went back over the barn and rebuilt it all.
To be fair to the Dexter's, it was our bad design in the first place. The gates had opened into the pen area, which cut down there room. This time I attached the gates to the wall of the barn so when open the gates lay flush to the wall, giving them more room to manoeuvre and less chance to knock into the them.
On Sunday 1st February 2009 Keith came over to have a look at the girls, I had spoken to him a couple of day before as I had noticed that Pancakes rear end was swelling, causing a little panic and kicking me into running the extension lead for the lights Mark and I had fitted about a month earlier.
Keith informed me that Pancake was nearly there and I should be looking around a week or so until she started, Isabella would probably take a little longer. He told me the signs to look out for, like the udders bagging up (filling with milk) and a slimy discharge from there rear end. (Sorry if you are having your dinner).
The 2nd February 2009, saw the heaviest snow fall for over twenty years in the southeast, and although I could just about make it down the field I was unable to make it to work. Instead myself, Tim, Daryl and a couple of others decided to spend the day reliving our childhood, by sledging down the hill we live on a very small tea tray.
As I right this, I am in agony and am feeling a little worse for the experience, although it was great fun at the time.
So with less than a week to go till calving, I am still reading the books and hoping all will go well. Keith again stated that if I have any problems or concerns, I should ring him, any time of day or night.
I think apart from the animal husbandry, this is thing I love about this way of life people are there for each other and genuinely care, and want to help.
Alan Beazley 2nd February 2009
Me the Police & Dexters part 5
Posted on Jan 22, 2009 at 10:18 AM
Me the Police & Dexters part 5
All was going well on the holding, we had built a holding pen installed the crush and although the weather had not been very good the grass was growing well and the field was in good condition. In August we took delivery of two Heifers, both of which had been put to the bull by Keith. We had initially agreed to cross the Dexter's with Aberdeen Angus, but on further consideration had decided to put both Heifers to a Dexter Bull as this would probably be less problematic at calving time as neither of the girls had calved before.
This is a decision that I am very glad we made as Dexter's are a very special cow with there own personalities. In a short time I had become very fond of cattle and of the breed in general.
The girls had settled in well and due to the fact that we are going to keep both girls we decided to name them (both have pedigree names but we thought that calling them something else would be a little more personal). The red one Tracey and I named Isabella and Marks daughter named the black one Pancake.
Up to this point we hadn't been given a herd Number, so after speaking to our local animal health office we arranged for a visit from an inspector. He arrived one afternoon and said he was very happy with our setup and stated that we had excellent Bio Security measures in place.
He then said the words that all Cattle keepers fear TB tests, quickly adding but don't worry it's only routine. So from that point onwards I was worried. I received a letter within days, setting out the time scale I had to have the animals tested. I contacted the vet and arranged a suitable appointment. Due to the fact it had taken us a long time to set up and build the pen and crush we hadn't managed to have the boys vaccinated against Blue Tongue yet. So we decided we would kill to birds with the same stone and get the vet to do this at the same time.
As the TB tests have to be done three days apart I had a very narrow window within which to work, luckily the vet was very accommodating and a date was set for the first test. Due to our previous experiences with the cattle and vets and considering we now had two more I was not confident in my own abilities to get the cattle all into the pen and then through the crush, still we had to try as not to do so could land us in trouble with DEFRA. I was hoping that our Olympic High Jumping cattle would not try and jump the new improved pen. I had put the boys through the pen on regular basis but the girls had only just arrived and I wasn't sure how they would react being put through the crush with the vet there. Pancake had been through a few times and was a confident girl Isabella was a different story, she is a nervous little thing and would need a little more coaxing.
The day arrived and I managed to get all four of them into the pen before the vet arrived without any drama's. The Vet, Hugh, arrived and within 15 minutes all had been tested and the boys had had there first BT jab as well (the girls had already been done). Three day later Hugh returned and gave us the all clear.
The next big job was to sort out a suitable date to slaughter the big lad before he reach 30 months. I contacted a local Abattoir that is less than 4 miles from the holding, and after explaining that this was the first animal I had put to slaughter they talked me through the process and explained everything in layman's terms. We had intended to butcher the carcass ourselves, with the help of my neighbour who is a butcher, but on speaking to the abattoir it was decided that the best way forward was for them to do it for us.
On the day I did feel a little strange loading the big lad into the trailer but once at the Abattoir I was fine. Once all the paper work was done I asked the receptionist if it was possible for us to have the horns from the big lad, again nothing was too much trouble. The following day I returned and pick up two very nice horns and was given advice on how to clean them. I was advised to put them into the compost so that the worms could eat all the organic material leaving the outer casing.
I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the horn, maybe a hunting horn or a drinking cup?
The carcase was hung for 21 days before being butchered. We picked up the meat that was packed into 9 boxes. I spoke to the receptionist on arrival who gave me all the details dead weight and final butchered weight. We didn't do as well as we had expected, we were about 20-30kg down. We had started the big lad on a finishing ration 8 weeks prior to going to slaughter. The ration was okay it contained 16% protein, I think we needed to feed and increase the amount earlier than we did. We started on 0.5kg per day for the first 2 weeks, rising to 1.5kg in the third to fifth week and then 2kg for the remainder.
This gave us a total of 100kg of butchered meat, we were hoping for about 130kg. Still the receptionist Sandra, said that that was an average and not to be too disappointed.
We took the boxes back to my house took out the meat we were giving away to repay favours, the rest was divided equally between Mark and I.
That night we had steak for tea!
The meat is dark and well marbled and the taste is superb, it melts in your mouth.
The first beef had been eaten and I felt proud that I had achieved what I had set out to do.
What I had dream of for years.
I had raised my own meat; I could truly call myself a smallholder now!
The next big event will be the calving, so it's back to the books and up with the sleeves.
Alan Beazley 01/11/2008
Me, The Police and Dexters (Part 4)
Posted on Jan 22, 2009 at 09:54 AM
Me, The Police and Dexter's (Part 4)
Over the next few weeks I tried to get over the field as much as possible. I still had to do the garden and get all the seeds potted, dig the beds and rake them and do all those little jobs that soon mount up into one larger task.
We finally had all the blue water pipe and fittings we needed to get on with the plumbing. I had managed to get hold of an old metal bath, so this had saved us a few quid. The plumbing went well with no major hitches; this was of course down to Mark being a builder, although he did spend about 10minutes or so fitting compression fittings to an old piece of discarded pipe before he realized he had got the wrong piece. Oh how I chuckled!!
In no time at all the plumbing was done and by and large the field was ready for the steers arrival.
On the 24th April Mark and I, along with our families arrived at the field. At about 0930 kith arrived with the two steers and once securely inside the field the rear of the trailer was opened and the boys were running around checking out there new home. We had been blessed with a beautiful sunny day which was unseasonably warm for the time of year. We had brought a picnic with us, and sat there watching the two steers watching us. Finally we all made our way back home, and for me the hard work of the day to day running of the smallholding was just about to start. The first thing I had to do was to contact the Cattle tracking System (CTS) and register the boys, I decided to do this online as it is a lot easier and instant, it saves having to send of the page in the passport and worrying if it ever arrived.
The next big thing was getting the boys vaccinated against Blue Tongue, I had already register the holding with a vet, so I contacted them and arrange for a vet to come over and give the boys there first injection, as well as showing how to do it so that I could administer the booster jab.
I had made a temporary holding pen in the barn. I had asked my nieghbour Tim if he could come over on the day and help out, just in case I needed someone. I showed him the pen and could see he was suitably impressed. I had decided that it would be best to leave the boys in the field until the vet got there, as this would be less stressful for them.
The vet arrived and cast her eye over my holding system, I got the feeling she wasn't as impressed as Tim and the "Yeah is that it" did nothing for my ego. Still with a confident smile I went into the field to get the boys in.
Now normally I would just shake a bucket of feed and they would come running over eager to see me and to see the treat I had for them. Today however they had decided to stand at the far end of the field looking at me as if I was stupid. So plan B was put into operation. This consisted of the three of us running around the field flapping our arms trying to herd them into the barn. After 30 minutes we were all knackered and the boys were still in the far corner having completed two or three laps of the field. It was decided that we would have to leave it until I had built a proper pen. I phoned Mark who was very understanding and full of useful advice and observations, well he was after he had stopped laughing. We arranged a date for mark to come over so that we could start building a pen. A few days later I was at work for an early turn (6am-2pm) and on my way to Lady Thatcher's house, it was about 10 past 6 when my phone rang. It was Jason the guy who owned the holding next to mine, "Alan I thought you would like to know that the cows have escaped!"
Silence My brain was working overtime, here was I in London and the cows are in Sussex, even if I could get time off it would be hours before I could get home. Luckily Jason said "don't worry I try and get them back in and see if I can mend the fence"
"Great" I said "I'll get hold of Tracey and get her down to you as soon as possible, I‘ll see if I can get some time off as well"
I contacted the Base Sergeant, who was new to the department having only arrived a couple of days before.
"Sarge Is there any chance I could have the last 4 hours off" I said
"I'll have a look but it's not likely we're stretched as it is" he replied
"If you could, only my cows have escaped and I need to get home" I continued
There was a long silence and then; "your COWS have escaped?"
"Yeah, they broke through the fence" I said
"Right" Silence again
I think it was at this point that I realised the absurdity of what I had just said. There was this new sergeant on a firearms department in the metropolitan Police and one of his Police Constables was asking for time off because his cows had escaped.
In the end I managed to get the last couple of hours off. (A few days later I spoke to the sergeant and he said that in 20 years in the job he had never heard that excuse before). I got back to the field at about 2pm; the boys were back in the field. Tracey and Jason had done a great job getting them back in and resecuring the fence. They had not done any damage to Sue's garden which was a blessing and had just sat them selves down under her apple tree. Jason had used one of feeding buckets and led them back in to the field. Tracey had then tied up the fence using bailing string (a smallholder's best friend).
It appeared that the boys had pushed through the fence by putting there heads between the top and middle strands of wire and pushing onto the middle strand pulling it away from the post. Luckily I had a reel of Barbed Wire in the barn, so Daryl and I spent the evening putting up another strand between the top strand and the middle one. Contacted Mark and we decided to be on the safe side we would put up stack netting all around the field.
After this drama we got on with building the holding pen, once it was complete I contacted the vet and arranged an appointment. This time I had them in the pen before the vet arrived. All was looking good up to the point that the vet tried to inject the larger of the two boys. Now they were penned into an area not a lot bigger than them, but this didn't stop them from jumping over the top rail, which stood at about four and a half feet. I looked at the vet and he just shrugged and said "yeah, they'll do that, you need to build the pen a bit higher" This time I didn't see the funny side.
The saying every cloud has a silver lining come true immediately. I explained to the vet that we couldn't afford a Cattle Crush, so I would have to re build the pen or hire in a crush. The vet said that he had been to a farm earlier that week and the farmer had said that he had an old crush for sale, and that he only wanted sixty quid for it. So a quick phone call later and I had secured a Crush. It is old probably 1950's or 1960's but it works.
The sad part of this is that the farmer I got it from is the last dairy farmer in Sussex to run an Ayrshire herd and because he is a tenant farmer, as have been his family for six generations, and as the rent for his farm has been increased yet the price he gets paid from the wholesaler for his milk keeps going down he is going out of business, the curse of the supermarkets strike again. Another good reason not to use them.
Alan Beazley 21/06/2008
Me the Police and Dexter's (Part 3)
Posted on Jan 19, 2009 at 11:22 AM
(Over the last three years my life and life style has changed dramatically, during this time I have kept a diary and thought this is as good a place as any to share some of my experiences. I hope you enjoy)
Me the Police and Dexter's
(Part 3).
Now the fence was up, we could start looking for the cattle to put onto the field. It was always our intention to put Dexter's onto the land, as these are smaller than other native breeds and although not on the rare breeds register, they are according to all in the know a rare breed, and one that deserves looking after. Apart from that they have a good temperament are excellent mothers and produce fantastic beef, not to mention the Milk, which is high in butter fat and quite delicious.
We had already looked on the Dexter's for sale website, and the Dexter's Society Website. Both very good sites, but the nearest dealers were still some miles away, and without a trailer, or at this stage a suitable vehicle to tow a trailer with, we had a problem. So as well as searching for cattle, I was also going to have to start a search for a 4 x 4 and trailer as well.
.I was thinking about selling my Honda CB1300 F-3 Motorcycle anyway, so it was onto e-bay and within 10 days I had sold it and had enough cash to start bidding on a suitable 4 x 4.
In the mean time a friend of mine Roger, who had been the one to put me in touch with Sue(the landowner), came to our rescue again and informed me that he had a friend who ran an Aberdeen Angus Herd, in the small village just outside of Steyning, no more that 3 or 4 miles away. This farmer, a man called David Bick had help set up a herd of Angus for another farmer, Keith Booker. Keith had already got a small herd of Dexter's and was possibly looking to sell a few of them on.
I spoke to David on the phone and arrange through him to visit Keith on the 16th March 2008.In the meantime I had bid on several 4 x 4's including a 1978 C110 Land rover a 3.2v6 Frontera and a 2.0 Free Lander. In the end the Frontera won and I arranged to pick it up on Monday 17th March. So I had a busy weekend in progress. It was also my birthday on the 16th March and my Wedding Anniversary as well, so Tracey had arranged an afternoon in Brighton first watching the Sinatra show (recommended) and then a meal.
So at 9am on a very wet Sunday I went over to David's in my Mazda MX-5 to pick him up so he could take me to see Keith's Dexter's. When I got to David's I was met at the front door by Roger who did the introductions and left. The problem now was that David is 83 and has just had a knee op, and although he is still very active, there was no way he was going to be able to get into a Mazda MX-5. So very graciously he offered to drive. This confirmed my need for a bigger car.
On the journey to Keith's David told me how he got started in farming and how he felt that land management was the key to healthy productive cattle. I realized that this guy was going to a great source of information and advice. I could have listened to him all day. At one point he asked what experience I had in farming, and with some embarrassment I had to tell him that apart for keeping a few hens for eggs I had none, but was willing to learn. David said "well I don't claim to know it all but if you need any advice you only have to give me a call or pop round". He went on to say that after 51 years in cattle farming he was still learning new things every day.
Once at Keith's place, David introduced us, and Keith took me on a tour of the farm. He had several of the Dexter's and some of the Angus herd in pens in the barn. He showed me two lovely Long legged Dexter's, one Black and one Red. These two girls were ready to be put to the bull. Next he showed me a 10 month old steer he was black and a handsome chap, and a 20 month old steer that was running with the rest of the Dexter's in one of Keith's fields. We discussed what I wanted and the best way of going forward. What I wanted was a renewable source of beef but didn't want to wait 2 ½ years or so for my first Sunday roast. So with Keith's help and advice we settled on the 20 month old Steer that would be ready for slaughter in October/November this year. The 10 month old Steer that would be finished the same time in 2009, and the two Heifers, that Keith would put to a Dexter bull for us, and deliver to us in August. The two steers would be delivered at the end of April.
Keith also said that he would be on call if we needed anything, and would be willing to help out with calving, and even offered to provide transport to the abattoir for the price of his diesel.
Keith and I shook hands on the deal and David and I made our way back to his place. Once there David offered to show me around his farm, but due to the fact that Tracey had arranged to take me out I had to decline, but told him that I would give him a call so that I could take him up on his offer another time.
I got back home and kissed Tracey, who indicated that I may need a shower before we go out, as I had a slight whiff of cow about me. Something we will have to get used to I suppose!
I phoned Mark and told him that we were now the proud owners of four Dexter's, and explained when we would be getting them, and the cost.
We now needed to push on with the field and get it finished, the water needed to be sorted out and we would need to put the finishing touches to the barn, but all in all we were course for the first arrivals.
On the 20th March I had to go into Work to complete my yearly Fitness test, Mark went to the field to dig the trench for the water pipe. At about 10am I got a call from Mark stating that at a depth of 2 inches he had hit solid chalk, I sympathized and told him I would be a least another 5 hours or so before I would be able to get back. All of a sudden the fitness test didn't seem such an ordeal. By the time I got back Mark had dug the trench, tidied the barn and re stacked the timber we had lying around the place. All that was left was to dig under a drainage pipe. I help with that and after a cuppa we left.
On the 21st March I took Tracey and Rhiannon to Keith's to see the cattle, Keith and I finalized the details of the purchase and confirmed the delivery date for the two steers.
The dream was almost a reality.
Alan Beazley 21-03-2008
Me, The Police & Dexters Part 2
Posted on Jan 17, 2009 at 03:09 PM
Me, The Police & Dexters Part 2
(Over the last three years my life and life style has changed dramatically, during this time I have kept a diary and thought this is as good a place as any to share some of my experiences. I hope you enjoy)
On the 26th February 2008, Mark and I arrived bright and early. It was a beautiful day, the sun was shinning and it was pleasantly warm for the time of year.
The Field is surrounded by stunning views of the Southdowns, to the west you look out over Chanctonbury Ring an iron age hill fort. To the East over Windmill hill, which leads to the Devils Dyke.
We started the day by putting the kettle on, and pouring the wood preserve into the bucket ready to paint the bottom of the posts, and the five bar gate we had brought, and picked up the day before. That had been an eventful day in itself.
Having borrowed a transit van from a friend of a friend myself and my next door nieghbour Tim went off to pick up the pre ordered posts, wire and gate.
The post went into the van without a problem, as did the wire and other bits and pieces. The problem came when we tried to put the 3.6m 5 bar gate into the back. It doesn't matter how hard you try, a 3.6m gate will not go into a 2.5m space. So it was onto the roof. Unfortunately the van doesn't have any roof bars, so we had to tie it onto the roof itself, not ideal.
Still we only had to go about 15 miles or so. We decided to take the country roads back as this would be a lot quieter. There must have been an accident on the main road as everyone and there mothers seemed to be on the same country roads as us.
Finally we made it back to the field and unloaded the van, using an old trailer to we found in the garage we moved the posts over to the barn and unloaded them again.
So with the first ten posts stood in the bucket we decided to hang the gate. This went better than we could have expected and with Marks knowledge of door hanging it was soon up. The gap between the post and the gate was about 1 inch at the top and 1 inch at the bottom, I couldn't have been more impressed with our work. Now there is an old saying Pride comes before a fall. You see we had brought an old fashioned spring catch which needs the gate to butt up to the post, not to have a perfect inch gap all the way down. So it was back to the shop to buy a different type of catch.
Another cup of tea and we started on the posts, I had borrowed a post bumper from a friend, this is a heavy metal cylinder closed at one end with handles on each side, you place the bumper over the end of the post and drop it down, the weight does most of the work. The first 5 post went in with out a problem, a couple were a bit wonky, or as we like to say RUSTIC.
The 6th post was wider than the others, so as we dropped the bumper onto the post, instead of making that lovely Cluuungg sound it went clump. As we lifted the bumper the post came with it. Half an hour later and after a lot of banging and swearing, not to mention a few choice words the post was still firmly stuck in the bumper. At this point we started to think about burning the post out, this did seem to be a bit drastic but we had tried everything else. In desperation I picked up the bumper and let the post fall to the ground keeping hold of the handles, this broke the post and seemed to loosen it as well. With a new hope and a large screwdriver we started to prize the remaining piece of post out of the bumper, 15 minutes or so later it was out.
It was time for another Cuppa.
After that every post was tested for size, and any that were to wide for the bumper were trimmed with a hand axe.
This learning curve is bloody steep.
With 2/3 of the post in we decided to call it a day and went home. The rest of the post would have to wait until we had another day off work, and that wasn't until 8th March.
In the mean time I spent a couple of afternoon evenings making repairs to the barn. Putting up roofing sheets & reinforcing the roof joist.
On Friday 8th March we met up as arranged and managed to get the last of the posts in. With a lot of back slapping and a firm handshake we retired to my house, where Tracey had prepared a fine kebab and chips supper (courtesy of the chippie). After a few beers and a drop or two of Elderflower wine, we retired to bed, mark getting the put-u-up in the front room.
Early next morning we returned to the field start putting up the wire. We carefully undid the barbed wire, and after un-boxing the brand new Draper wire tensioner and carefully reading the in-depth instructions, 4 pictures, we felt like experts. The barbed went well, I only dragged it across my thigh the once!!!
The tensioner was working well and in no time at all I was hammering in the last staple. It was at this point that mark took the opportunity to say well done, and as I turned to return his congratulations, I missed the staple and brought the hammer down onto my forefinger, which instantly swelled to twice its normal size and throbbed like hell.
More tea, I think!! And not a lot of sympathy from Mark, who only stopped giggling like a girl to dunk his biscuit.
After tea we started on the two runs of plain galvanized wire. The first two stretches were very short, only about 20m. We had unwrapped the wire and were taking it from the outside of the coil. The next runs were a lot longer, about 120m each, about 30m into the first 120m run the wire snagged. A gentle tug, and we had 610m of tangled, and knotted 2.5mm wire.. Great!!
I can't say a lot about the next 6 hours, only that we didn't speak a lot, there was a lot of mumbling going on, and enough swearing to turn a sailors hair grey.
After a lot of puffing and sighing the fence was up and complete. It had taken the best part of 10 hours but we had done it.
If we were going to fall out this would have been the day, but we had got through it, life could only get easier from now on. Couldn't it?
Alan Beazley 18-03-2008
Me, The Police & Dexters.
Posted on Jan 15, 2009 at 06:09 PM
Me, The Police & Dexters.
(First published in "smallholder"Magazine june 2008)
(This is an article i had published in Smallholder magazine and explains how i got to the piont i'm at now. )
Born in 1967, I grew up during the 70's in an industrial town in West London, not far from Heathrow Airport. There were some fields near to our house, and I would spend all my spare time there climbing trees, damning the stream and watching the wild life.
I was lucky enough to have an Aunt and Uncle that lived in Woburn Green, near High Wycombe, Bucks. I spent a lot of time there during the school holidays playing with my two cousins Karen & Kirsty.
I t was here that I got my love of the countryside and nature. My Auntie Jeanne would take us for walks in the woods and along the river. In spring we would go and have a look at the new lambs in the fields, it was a wonderful time.
By the age of 17 I had left school, met my future wife Tracey and learnt to drive. Tracey and I would drive out to the countryside every opportunity we got. We would get home from work on a Friday evening, pack the car and just drive. The only restriction on where we would go, was that it had to be away from the crowds and noise of the city.
Then my Cousin Gary moved to a smallholding on Bodmin Moor, so it was of to Gary's for the weekend. From the moment I arrived I was hooked, that was what I wanted to do. Gary and his then wife Tina had chickens, ducks, sheep and a couple of goats. What a life! They grew all there own veg and fruit and made there own wine and beer.
A few years later Tracey and I, who now had a beautiful baby son, Daryl, moved into our first house. Unfortunately we were still in London. The house had a very small garden but we still managed to keep a couple of hens. Then a year or so later along came Rhiannon, and it was time to move again. This time the garden was a lot bigger, so I dug a decent sized Veg patch and added another couple of hens.
We still had the dream of the smallholding but with work being in London not to mention family we stayed put.
Then after being offered redundancy at BT, I did something I thought I would never have done. I applied to join the Metropolitan Police and got in.
That was it, a career in the Police was at the forefront of my mind and all thoughts of a smallholding were pushed to the rear. So much so that the Veg plot was grassed over the hens re homed. I mean I was going to be a tough copper and there was no room for things like Hens and Veg gardens.
After a couple of years in the job, we decided to move to Sussex. I stayed in the Met and commuted every day. We moved to a small village on the Southdown's, but again had a small garden. We were surrounded by beautiful countryside and only 10 mins from the sea. This was like torture for me (and still is) I live in a beautiful place but have to travel into London everyday.
At this stage of my career I was serving in Richmond Upon Thames. On early's I would go into Richmond Park and watch the Deer, it was fantastic, but I would find myself thinking what the hell am I doing travelling everyday from Sussex to London and then searching out artificial green areas to spend part of my day, it was madness.
Then in 2006 I joined the Diplomatic Protection Group (CO6) the largest firearms unit in the country.
You would have thought that I couldn't have got further away from the smallholder dream if I had tried.
It was here that I met Mark a fellow firearms Officer on my team. During a couple of very long and boring shifts working together, we got to talking about our childhoods and our lives before we joined the Police. During one of these conversations I mentioned my Chicken keeping days and my dream of one day having a smallholding and raising my own livestock and growing my own veg. As the words left my mouth I instantly regretted it. Back at the nick that would be it, relentless mickey taking; "The Good Life" theme would be whistled every time I entered a room.
But to my surprise Mark Said" I keep hens and have been growing my own veg for a couple of years now"
That was it, for about 6 months every chat we had was about going green, growing veg and living the good life. We even started to speak about it in the canteen in front of other officers, who predictably whistled the theme to "the Good Life" and started to call us Tom and Barbra.
The dream was back on, Tracey and I talked about it, and decided to get some more hens. I also dug over the front garden and started to plant a fruit and veg garden.
The problem with rekindling a dream is that once the embers are stoked the fire roars back into life and burns fiercer than ever before. After another few moths, I realised that I wasn't happy at work and that I hadn't been for a long time. My life had, over the last 8 years or so seemed to be missing something. I had a lovely wife two great kids, but still something was missing. That something was the dream of owning my own land and living a self sufficient life as possible.
After another long chat with Tracey, we decided that once the kids were out of school we try and put the dream into reality. In the mean time we would start to live a much greener life. The veg Plot was doing well. We put water butts all around the house to catch the rain water. Compost bins were put on the front garden, and nick named the Darleks by the neighbours. We started to make all our own Pickles, Chutneys and Jams as well as all our own Country Wine and Beer.
I brought a sausage maker and started to make our own sausages.
As the kids would be in school for another 5 or 6 years we decided to start to look for a small piece of land locally, something big enough to raise a few pigs. We found out very quickly that firstly land is very expensive in Sussex especially on the Southdown's, and that most, in fact all the land owner I have met don't want pigs on their land. So it was going to have to be sheep, not a bad thing we all really love Lamb. The problem with sheep and lamb is the time you need to give to them, and both working full time and me doing silly shifts in London, we decided it would be fair on the sheep.
Then after a chance meeting with a guy down the pub, and a conversation about land, livestock and then Dexter cattle. I had a lead on a piece of land owned by a friend of a friend.
A phone call or two later I had made contact with the landowner and a meeting was set up.
I went to work full of it next day and spoke to Mark at length about my plans for some Dexter Cattle. The following day Mark approached me and asked if I was interested in a joint venture. To be honest I had been hoping he would ask as two heads are always better than one and it would still be a lot of hard work.
So one cold February morning we went to have a look at the field. It was just what we wanted, about two and a half Acres with a small derelict barn in one corner, which would be fairly easy to rebuild (especially as Mark used to be a builder). We agreed to take the land if the price was right.
The next Saturday I went to meet the landowner, a lovely lady called Sue, We agreed a very reasonable price for a two year lease.
That was that we finally had some land.
It was agreed that as I lived within two miles from the land I would do all the day to day stuff, and mark would look after the books. All the major things we would do together.
So on the 26th February 2008 B&R Dexter's came into being, with the first fence post being driven into the ground. Due to the shifts we work the fence was going to take a bit of time to put up, but with that first post going into the ground our dream, in part, had become a reality.
(The fencing, buying and moving the cattle onto the land would be eventful, but nobody ever told me, nor was I under any elusion that this was going to be easy, but then anything worth while very rarely is.)
THIS BLOG WAS FIRST PUBLISHED IN "SMALLHOLDER" MAGAZINE IN JUNE 2008.
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