Archive for February 9th, 2008
Congratulations to Carol Thompson. Well Done!
De Standpipe Crew sends heartfelt congratulations to young Carol Thompson for her personal contribution and commitment to agriculture in Barbados. At 29 years old, she is the essence of ambition, hard work and dedication. With people like her, we know that the future of our country is in safe hands.
Well done!
http://www.nationnews.com/story/349644115357383.php
On the sheepwalk
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by MELISSA ROLLOCK
YOU CAN’T FIGHT DESTINY.
Carol Thompson, a fourth-generation sheep farmer knows this better than anyone. Her great-grandmother down the line to her mother have been sheep farmers, but Carol tried her utmost to avoid following in their footsteps.
Why? you may ask.
It wasn’t because she was ashamed of what they did for a living, she just didn’t think she was cut out for rearing livestock.
So just how did she go from that point to being in charge of hundreds of Black-Belly sheep at Kendal Plantation, Kendal, St John?
It’s interesting really.
While she was intent on staying away from animals, Carol didn’t depart from farming altogether.
The 29 year-old former model traded in her designer clothes and heels for jeans and rubber boots to pursue a livelihood in farming crops but the more she studied, the clearer it became that she was destined to carry on the family tradition.
It took her a numberof years and a trip to another country to realise that she was born to work with animals.
She decided to study animal science and farm management at the Samuel Jackman Prescod Polytechnic (SJPP) and it was the sexist attitudes she experienced there,as one of only two females in those classes, that catapulted her into her current career.
“Even at school, one of my instructors told me I was probably in the wrong field because I was a girl.I somehow did a lot better after he told me that; it was my motivation to do better,” said Carol, who is Kendal’s farm supervisor and is entrusted with the plantation’s ambitious breeding programme which aims to make rearing Black-Belly sheep a lucrative venture.
From the SJPP, where she gained distinctions in the City & Guilds exams, she got a scholarship to study in Venezuela where she pursued Farm administration and veterinary economics, learning Spanish as a prerequisite.
“When I went to Venezuela, I got a chance to work with both crops and animals. I was more interested at the time in dairy and beef production.
“When I came back to Barbados, I did my internship at Water Hall Plantation. I then went over to the Feed Lot in St Phillip and started
to work with sheep there,” she explained.
The rest, as they say, is history. Carol currently takes care of 700 sheep at the plantation and is working towards increasing that number
to 1 000 by the end of the year.
She has been with Kendal for two years.
Most people who see her at work are shocked for mainly two reasons: the fact she’s a woman and because “I’m so tiny”.
They’re usually taken aback that a female would want to work with sheep for a living. Another surprise is that Carol is president of the board of the Barbados Sheep Farmers Inc. and second vice-president of the Barbados Agricultural Society. So she’s very serious about what she does.
She’s also not afraid to get her hands dirtied which is evident when she has to assist with any of the births.
Carol confessed: “I never wanted to work with animals. I couldn’t take the thought of getting attached and then having to send them off
to the slaughter house. I tend to see all animals as pets; I actually havea pet cow at home.
“That’s why I didn’t want to work with livestock. But here at Kendal, I’ve learned not to get emotionally attached especially when it is ‘lambing’ season; when it’s time for the ewes to give birth. Sometimes you try so hard with a lamb that looks as if it’s going to survive but for whatever reason it doesn’t; you can’t save them all,” she said.
It is easy to become attached since she spends most of her time at the farm with the sheep. If any is sick and the veterinarian isn’t there, she tends to them until he or she arrives and she takes time to bottle-feed the newborns.
During “lambing season” Carol puts her personal and social life on hold to keep a close eye on all of the pregnant sheep. She sometimes sleeps over in her office to be near them – that’s how dedicated she is to her job.
“Black-Belly sheep tend to have multiple births, up to five lambs, compared with other sheep around the world. One of the challenges with multiple births is that all might not survive. Their nutrition has to be on the ball – if the ewe is carrying and she doesn’t get the right nutrition, she will lose weight instead of putting on. If you give them too much it can cause a disease which can kill the mothers.
“I do study animals a lot it is not just about the figures or what books say but I tend to watch their behaviour.
“You can tell what an animal is going through just by the way it is standing. Through this breeding programme, I would like to see
Black- belly sheep all over the island.
“There are not many farms on the island at this level, though some are coming on stream. This is suppose to be the project to show that rearing Black-Belly sheep for the market can be profitable. We want to be able to sustain ourselves and go into the export market,” Carol explained.
She believes Barbados needs to patent the genetics of the Black-belly “so that the genetics will say this is what the Barbados Black-belly sheep looks like scientifically”.
In the past, there had been cases of overseas entities patenting the name of Barbados Black-Belly sheep.
Despite its challenges, Carol wants more young people and yes, more women, to get into farming in general.
“I know a lot of young people are shying away from agriculture because they figure it is something that is not going to pay but let me tell you, it
pays off quite well for me.
“When I was at the Polytechnic, I figuredI would have to own a plantation to make money in agriculture. Then I realised I could make
my own money. If you are interested in it, I say go for it,” she advised.
2 comments Saturday, 9 February 2008, 12:54 am
