Exchange to England 2007
Gary McConnell
Lower Nithsdale YFC
The summer of 2007 saw me head away on my second exchange trip through the SAYFC’s International Exchange Programme, this time to the picturesque county and home of fine cider – Dorset, in South West England.
Having been on an exchange to Ireland in 2006, I felt I knew a bit about what to expect but nevertheless knew it would be different in many ways. My first encounter with my host’s, the Goodfellow family, was when I had to contact Rachel Goodfellow and arrange a suitable time for me to stay, initially it had been anticipated that I would have a two week exchange incorporating the Royal Show and stay with 2 separate families, but as the weather towards the end of May and beginning of June wasn’t playing ball in terms of it chucking it down almost everyday, I had to annoyingly postpone my trip as the pressures of work and running a one man band silage contracting outfit made it impossible for me to get away!
Rachel was pretty cool about the whole thing and understood as things were running behind on her own family farm. After explaining that she also had a pretty busy schedule due to having 3 part time jobs, one of which was helping to organise weddings, we eventually agreed on a suitable date for me to stay, and that I would go down for 1 week at the end of July, as they had a County Ball on, that she thought would be good to attend! Whilst chatting to her she asked me if I had any reservations about staying in a static Caravan, as there were currently 6 people staying in the Farmhouse, due to them having a family friend staying with them from Australia for a spell. I said it wouldn’t be a problem and it would add to the adventure!!
I decided that the quickest and probably cheapest option to reach my destination would be to travel by rail, so on the 25th of July I headed off to Lockerbie Station and boarded the Virgin train to Bournemouth. This was to be the most direct train with only 2 transfers, one at Birmingham South and one at Waterloo. It was a fair journey, but as I had almost travelled the entire length of England by the time I reached Dorchester Station in approx 5-6hrs excluding stops, I still reckoned the train was the best bet.
On arrival at Dorchester Station I met my host Rachel, where she took me on the half hour drive to her family farm near Bridport. I was introduced to her mum Kath, dad Kev, big Brother Ed and the Australian family friend Jessie. I later met her little brother Rob and eldest brother Chris. It certainly was a house full, but I was made feel most welcome as Kath ushered me through to the conservatory and showed me to my place at the huge tea table! Kev explained that there farm was around 250 acres and was mainly full organic status, although they had 80 acres of non-organic ground 6 miles away. He went on to tell me that the farm was let from Dorset County Council, as were many of the farms in the area. The farm was home to a herd of suckler cows, mainly Limmy and Charolais crosses and a flock of Texel Cross sheep, incorporating a small flock of Poll Dorset’s. After I had been fed and watered I wash shown my living quarters, which was in the shape of a static caravan situated at the end of the garden, it was pretty smart and well equipped and in the week that I stayed in it never had a bad night’s sleep! I finished off my first night by watching a dvd with Rachel and Ed and his girlfriend.
The following morning Rachel had to go to work so she asked if I would be ok helping out on the farm, Kev and Ed were going to be de-horning calves and the vet was visiting the farm to do a TB test. She felt quite bad about having to work and me being left at the farm, but I assured her I was perfectly happy to get stuck in and it would give me the chance to have a good nosey around! As I worked along side Ed and his dad I learned a lot about there farm and surrounding area, Kev explained that TB was pretty rife in there area but there herd was free from the disease and he hoped it remained that way. He told me that the farm was very much a family run enterprise, with himself and Kath doing the bulk of the work and everyone else helping out when they could, but as the farm wasn’t sustainable for Ed to work there full time he helped local Contractors on a self employed basis and had his own sheep shearing business. Ed’s older brother Chris had his own welding and fabrication business, with a small workshop on the farm and Kev pointed out that Chris had built a few of the farm’s cattle shed’s and handling facilities. Rob, Ed’s younger brother was a trainee electrician but liked to muck in with the farm work too.
That evening Rachel had organised to take me to a neighbouring YF Club meeting, which was a visit to a chillies and pepper farm, at West Bexington near Dorchester. I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but was pleasantly surprised to see rows and rows of polytunnels spread across the hill side. There was a good turn out of members at the meeting too and the woman that showed us round was certainly passionate about her chillies, she informed us that they were right in the height of Chilli season which began in late July and finished early December. They produced about 30 varieties of Chillies at there farm and sold them all over Britain and seed into Europe and as far as America, which they marketed through there website. We got to sample a few different varieties, amongst them, the Dorset Naga, which was ranked as one of the world’s hottest, I opted out off sampling that particular one as I figured that something that made your eyes stream and mouth want to drop off, wouldn’t do my stomach any favours! After the meeting was over we retired to a little Restaurant along the road, which was owned by the Club Chairman’s grandparents. There I got the chance to mingle with some of the members over a beer or 2, and learn about what activities they do in their clubs and also got the low down on the Wincanton Summer Ball, which we were to be attending the following evening!
Friday was to be a day for sight seeing, so myself and Rachel along with Jessie the Australian headed for Lyme Regis, which is a sea-side resort 100% geared up for tourism! The long piers, deck chairs and ice-cream stalls reminded me of a smaller version of Blackpool! We walked along the sandy beach which Rachel informed us was the longest one on the Southern Coast, taking in the breathtaking views and chatting away about nothing in particular, before heading for a look in some of the shops. We grabbed some lunch and decided to visit a working Corn Mill, that we had seen signs for off the main street. This proved to be very interesting and we got to see the large water wheel and gears that powered the whole mill as well as getting a shot at grinding some corn of our own, on an old fashioned grinding stone. Later in the day we headed into Dorchester and visited the old Court House, where a tour guide gave us an insight into what would have happened when a criminal went to court in years gone by. We got to see the very cramped and dark prison cells and the court room itself. He talked to us about the Slave trade and how Dorchester Court saw the birth of the Trade Union. We rounded off the afternoon by dropping in on Rachel’s Grandparents for afternoon tea and biscuits! Grand!
That evening it was time to get the Kilt out and head to Somerset, for the Wincanton Ball. I had heard much about the Ball, which was an annual event that regularly attracted a huge crowd from Club’s far and wide. Before we arrived in Wincanton, we had to drop of our sleeping bags/clothes at Rachel’s Aunts Farm, which was just half a mile or so from where the dance was being held and which would be where we were sleeping for the night. We headed to a pub first, which I was most grateful about as I felt a few pints wouldn’t do any harm in settling the nerves before entering the Ball as the only pillock wearing a Kilt. When we reached the Ball it certainly didn’t disappoint, with a live band, hog roast and bucking bronco for entertainment. I recognised many of the faces from the previous night and after chatting away to them I soon felt quite at home, this was probably down to there friendly nature’s and the copious amounts of Cider that I seemed to be being forced to consume! All in all, a definite highlight of the exchange!
Visions of a long lie on Saturday morning were soon shattered as Ed informed everyone that he had to go and shear sheep, so at 8 o’clock sharp, four bleary eyed punters bundled into a Golf GTI and headed on the one hour drive back to base. It was suddenly all go, as the weather had taken a turn for the better and when we arrived back at the Farm, Ed was on a mission to get going, he had found himself in a dilemma as he had sheep to shear and fieldwork to get on with. I offered to help and soon found myself at the wheel of a New Holland tractor rolling and harrowing a field in preparation for turnips, while Ed and his dad went off to deal with the sheep. Jessie the Australian, headed straight to bed and remained there for the rest of the day, I later learned that he was a man that was particularly fond of sleep!
On the Saturday night I headed into Dorchester along with Rob and Jessie, Rachel decided to give it a miss as she was helping her Aunt with wedding catering the following day. Although Bridport was the nearest Town to the Goodfellow’s farm, Rob said he wouldn’t go for a night out there and that Dorchester was much better. The farm was a bit far to taxi back to afterwards, so Rob had arranged for us to kip down at his Grandparents house. (The one’s I had met on the Friday) The Junction Pub was our first port of call where we met up with a few of Rob’s mates and got introduced to some of his female acquaintances! We spent a few hours in that pub before hitting the Fire Station night club to sample the Shot Bar and dance away to quality 80’s cheese! It was at that point that Rob pointed out a bar maid that he had spent 2 hours trying to chat up, the weekend before! I came to the conclusion that he was a bit of a Jack the Lad!! The following morning Rob’s granny rustled us all up a hearty breakfast before giving us a lift back into Dorchester to retrieve Rob’s car. On the way there, she pointed out a huge drawing of a horse on the side of a hill, it was basically a chalk outline but was very clear and had been there for years, however probably more eye catching was the drawing next to it, which Rob pointed out was an outline of Homer Simpson, he explained that a local artist had created it as a sort of advertisement for Simpson’s the Movie.
The rest of Sunday was spent recovering from the 2 previous nights and generally just chilling out. Kev took me a run down to the local grain dryer, which was operated by a local farming co-operative. I was impressed to learn that he had yet another string to his bow as he explained that he was the soul man in charge of running the outfit. He got paid a set amount every month from the co-operative to run the dryer, load grain lorries as well as maintain the plant. He reckoned it was a very handy source of income and although in the height of harvest he would spend many long days down there, the rest of the year he could pretty much please himself if he wanted to go down and do a few hours maintenance or such like. The dryer itself had the capacity to dry around 6 tons of Grain an hour, on average, and was made up of an impressive array of storage bins and elevators. Kev said he quite enjoyed spending time down at the dryer and when it was really busy he had to be on the ball because with 12 bins, holding up to 25 ton each, it was a lot of grain to shift around and organise, but he enjoyed the hustle and bustle of it all. I took a few snaps with my camera and we headed back home for supper. On the way back I mentioned that he had plenty of work to keep him occupied, and he announced that he had yet another job on the go ……… he relief milked for his brother in law when he was needed!! Clearly not a man that liked to be idle! During supper Ed got a phone call from one of his mates that was desperate for a man to go and drive a tractor to haul silage, he said that he was too busy though as he wanted to mow hay at home. When he came off the phone he looked at me with a grin, and I knew what he was thinking, I jumped at the chance and the next day I would be heading away to haul silage with a brand new Claas Axion tractor. Rachel had to work on the Monday but kept asking me if it was ok for me to go tractor driving, and again I think she thought I should be sight seeing or learning about the area. I told her I would be, because the farm I was going to work at was half an hour away and I would get to see more of the Dorset countryside as well as met a local contracting outfit – I’d be in my element!! Kev and Ed were filling me in about who I was going to be working for, and basically ‘Bulldog’ who’s tractor I was going to be driving, was a one man band outfit much like myself. Bulldog (still don’t know his proper name!) was going to be driving the chopper for another contractor called Roger Sorrell, as he couldn’t find a driver for the chopper, and I would be driving his tractor with Sorrell’s trailer for the day. Ed said the Bulldog nickname would become clear when I clapped eyes on him!
Kath had rattled me up a pack lunch for the day and we set off to the farm to meet Bulldog and the rest of the crew. The sun was already up, and the fields on the way across were a hive of activity with mowers and tractors working everywhere. I got introduced to Bulldog and the name suited him pretty well, he looked as strong as an ox and had tattoos all the way up both arms and a neck that was as wide as his head! I thought to myself that I better not damage anything! He showed me round his new toy which was the newer model of Claas tractor that we had at home, so looked pretty straight forward. The farm we were working on was owned by a man in Gloucester and was run by a manager, it had a large dairy and was farmed on a New Zealand type system, taking just one cut of silage. We made our way across to the main farm and had to put the side sheets on the silage pit before we started. I met Rose Sorrell who was the contractor’s wife, it was a family affair with Rose doing the raking, Roger on the chopper or mowers and there 16 year old son on the buck rake. We passed Roger Sorrell on the way across who was busy flying up and down the field with a Fendt tractor and front and back mowers. We eventually started chopping at ten o’clock and I was joined by 2 other local farmers who were there to haul as well. Everything was going well until the chopper developed a rattling noise from the pick up reel, after stopping twice and a lot of head scratching they concluded that it was from 2 bolts that were missing out of the auger, Bulldog made the executive decision to keep hammering on until it stopped working!! We got going again for another half hour before the top half of my trailer back door decided to start flapping about. We reversed it up to a chalk heap to investigate and discovered that it was only holding on with one bolt! Bulldog told me quietly that maintenance wasn’t a big priority for this particular squad and you never really knew what would happen next! We dropped the top half of the door off and worked away for the rest off the day with just the lower grain door on and only filled the front 2/3rd’s of the trailer. Things went better in the afternoon for a while before the buck rake tractor blew an oil pipe, so one of the other boys that was hauling had to put his tractor onto the silage pit and meant that we were down to just 2 hauling! After the oil pipe got repaired we were all go again and worked away till half 7 when the farm manager announced that we would have to stop chopping because we had caught up with the mower. I went to tip my last load and pulled into the silage pit to find the buck rake tractor sitting with a flat tyre, it really hadn’t been a good day for them, but nevertheless I enjoyed meeting more of the local agricultural fraternity as well as getting the chance to sail around in the height of comfort at the wheel of a new Claas!