December 2023 49 That incident resulted in a huge amount of work in the future. The Lion Park owner and the zoo owner were extremely influential people although not loved by the public. There were a few circuses attached as were several wild-like film companies, some game parks and several wild animal dealers. Slowly they all came aboard. This work ultimately resulted in an advert we produced that won the Cannes Film Festival award for the best peace advert worldwide in 1993 (see: Nedbank Lion and Lamb Advert). And then the crocodile farms started and resulted in a huge amount of work – all from a single lion on Christmas day. Here probably the first ever electro-ejaculation of a male crocodile, Henry, is included in the work done. My start with the beef industry was also fortuitous. Max, the vet I had bought from said he thought we should visit his biggest client to introduce me. In the car on the way to a luncheon, he mentioned that the farmer was very reluctant to use a recent graduate so he could not be sure of the outcome. We arrived at the palatial farmhouse and were ushered into an office with a multitude of hunting trophies; fairly intimidating. Somewhere during the meeting, the farmer mentioned he had several farms in the northern Transvaal bush veld and that his cattle had been dying with bloated rumens which when opened, contained a rough mat of fibrous material. His vet had sent some of the dead animals off to Onderstepoort for post-mortem but had not had results. Our clinic group in our final weeks of clinics had done the post-mortems!! They had resulted from Mopani moths spinning cocoons. Not wanting to sound like the local know-it-all I waited my turn and then discussed it in full. A few days later Max phoned me to say that the vet in the Transvaal had confirmed all I had said. That resulted in a friendship and business deal that lasted the better part of 49 years. The farmer was the South African farmer of the year on three occasions and vice chairman of the now defunct Stockowners Co-op for many years. The “partnership’ resulted in the development of the largest Brangus herd in South Africa and it exported many bulls to many African countries. All from a student post mortem at Onderstepoort. There are many highlights for me in the last 50 years in practice including achievements on the dairy farms on the Ilse of Man and recently remarkable success in Gabon. And all that stems from improving the 4 X 4 we were given as students at Onderstepoort and driving it to many previously unreached destinations. v Regulars I Life plus 24
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