Farmers have a reputation for being tough. The problem with this perception is that it is so often wrong. Some of the softest, most caring clients I have ever worked with have been farmers. To my mind, it is their caring and compassionate nature that actually makes them a good farmer.
While working in Cornwall, in the South West of England, one of our farmers, Tim, had a blind dog called Barney. Barney was born blind, but despite Tim normally acting like a tough bloke, he was really a bit of a softy.
I would have thought that Barney would struggle to survive on a farm. A blind dog isn’t much good for cattle work, and I thought he would get lost too often or injure himself.
Fortunately for Barney, Tim fell in love with him. He built a special cage inside his Landrover (in the cab, so Barney was always safe and warm), and he was never far from Tim’s side.
One day, while walking between the house and the dairy, Barney fell into a hole. He eventually struggled and got himself out, and the next day Tim was out with his cement mixer and filled the hole completely. This is when we realised how good Barney’s sense of direction was. Every time he walked between the house and the dairy, he would walk around where the hole had been. He knew exactly where it was, and because he couldn’t see that it had been filled in, he kept walking around that spot. He seemed to know exactly where he was on the farm at all times.
Another time Barney’s blindness nearly caused him a major problem was when he was charged by a cow.
Tim had been out checking his cows and saw one was calving. He was on the phone to our receptionist when he said “hang on, I’ll call you back”. He didn’t have a chance to hang up, so our receptionist heard the sounds of an angry cow, Tim running, then a loud crash. He then picked up the phone again, puffing, and asked for us to come out to help with the calving.
When I got out there, I could see Tim was a bit scratched and sore. Apparently the cow had charged Barney. Tim knew that Barney, being blind, didn’t stand a chance without him, so he picked up Barney and ran to the hedge with the cow close behind him. He threw Barney over the fence to safety, but by saving Barney he put himself in danger and the cow knocked him head-first into the hedge. Tim was lucky that the cow didn’t cause more serious damage as they can easily break bones when charging. Barney escaped without injury, and was still happily living on the farm when I left to come back to Australia.
I had the pleasure of working on Tim’s farm for a number of years, and it was always a pleasure to work with the sort of farmer that treats his animals with so much respect and love.