VN May 2021

Vetnews | May 2021 37 Story I was also asked to take over the clinical work on the top stud herd of Jersey’s and Friesians at the college, which enabled me to help them set up a decent fertility program and gave me the option to get involved in the day to day veterinary service which I had been missing so much. It also gave me the opportunity to set up practical classes for the students. The next state vet arrived just after I left the State service a year later. A short while later I received a call from a distraught Shippie Shipman, the manager of the herd, begging me to come and help with a dystocia in a Friesian heifer. It appears that the new state vet, who shall be nameless was phoned and his reply was;“Take the cow up to the first floor, tie the calf to a rope and toss the cow out of the window”, followed by a few smirks, for which he was known. As a result of this type of reply and clear ineptitude with clinical work, I was asked informally to continue doing their clinical work after I left the state service, which I did for many years after that. I’m sure most of the readers probably think this is a gross exaggeration, but if I would mention the colleague’s name, those who knew him would understand immediately that it sounds just like him. After a year or two of this gross incompetence he was moved safely out of the way to the bacon factory at Estcourt in Natal. As the year swept past, I was becoming more and more eager to join Joep and yet didn’t realise how the Lord was preparing me all the time for a new dimension in my life. v 24-Hour, Toll-Free Helpline: 0800 21 21 21