I first encountered the Dev Farm in October 1978 during my first year in DEV. It was a much-enjoyed outlet on Wednesday afternoons for a farmer’s boy who needed some time outside, engaged in physical work.
It was then that I first met Adrian Friggens (a 3rd year student) who lived in a caravan on the farm. It was not until my second year (1979-80) that I engaged more fully as I needed a project of some kind for my dissertation. Adrian was a mature student and had stayed on post-graduation as he tried to find employment. Jean-Paul Jeanrenaud and I had a plan to train oxen and to use the experience as part of our joint dissertation, Adrian had been a volunteer in Upper Volta (Burkina Faso) and had learnt how to train oxen there, so he taught us the ropes. We went to look at cattle on a local farm and were able to purchase two 13/14-month-old Hereford x Friesian bullocks. Jean-Paul (or rather his girlfriend, Sally Westwood) immediately named them Gunder and Frank after our DEV Professor. This pair of animals were around for the next 6 or 7 years, and gained quite a lot of press attention, visited the Royal Agricultural Show at Stoneleigh on two occasions, and appeared in the local press, Anglia TV and the Times newspaper. Bovine celebrities!
At this time there was a workshop and office in the University Village and Roger Fredenburgh taught Jean-Paul and me how to arc weld and cut metal with oxyacetylene torch. Once equipped, we built animal drawn tools and toolbars as part of our dissertation project.
We learnt how to cultivate, plough, weed and ridge and tried out a few multipurpose toolbars and 3 pad collar harnesses. Many hours were spent on the farm and in the workshop and this experience proved valuable in future years.
I later, after graduation, linked up with Adrian again when he offered me the opportunity to come and work in Burundi for a year with Action Aid, training NGO workers to train oxen and assisting with the management of a small agricultural workshop manufacturing simple tools. So began a 30-year career working in agricultural development in Africa, SE Asia and the Caribbean.
Both before and after the move across the Watton Road to the new site and a new name (Rural Technology Unit) links were made with other organisations with an interest in draught animal power, Silsoe Research Institute, the Centre for Tropical Veterinary Medicine, University of Edinburgh and the Intermediate Technology Development Group. The oxen proved to be quite a unique resource in the UK to these organisations for experimentation. They were also used to train VSO volunteers before they left for their overseas posts.
I consider the practical experiences of DEV Farm to have been crucial to my personal education and learning without which I would have not had a career in development.
David Barton
Gillingham, Dorset
March 2023
