Wild life | 22 September 2016

Laikipia

  For a rancher north of Mount Kenya, a man’s best legacy might be a good bloodline of Boran beef cattle. For years I wanted to buy a bull from George Aggett. His Borans are wide and deep and they are natural polls, that is, they are born hornless. George’s grandfather settled on the Laikipia plateau in 1920 and for nearly 100 years the Aggetts had kept almost a closed herd. I heard they never, ever sold bulls, and so it took me a long time to pluck up courage to approach George, an ex-Royal Marine with steely eyes and a fighter’s frame. When we acquired our first few cows a long time ago, the craggy man who sold them to us observed (and it was not a question), ‘You’re not a proper farmer.’ Fifteen years later I’m just about tolerated by other ranchers. Good advice is what a learner like me needs most and it’s hard to come by out here. George, it turned out, was generous. After the Marines he had flown Boeings for Kenya Airways, and when he retired from that to come home to the family farm, he still loved flying in his Cessna 210. One day he landed on the dusty airstrip above the house, looked at a mob of my aspiring young bulls and said, ‘Nothing special here. Castrate them.’ All except two, which he advised I take to the Livestock Breeders’ Show in Nairobi. Then, without me having to ask him, he invited me over to look at his own cattle. On George’s farm, I saw everywhere the signs of hard toil and investment across three generations. Before the last world war his grandfather had built wonderful dams using teams of oxen. His father Clive had excavated a vast 57-acre dam with just his own small tractor, taking two entire years to complete it. Every paddock was grassy and supplied with water. The fences and dry-stone walls were in beautiful order. George, like his father, had no tolerance for wildlife such as elephant or lion. He was a rancher, not a game-park amateur. And his cattle! Fat! Wide! Deep! George sold me a great bull. I put him in with my cows and from day one he was randy. When I prevaricated about going to the show, George urged me not to back out. Whenever I saw George I really enjoyed talking to him. When you get into your fifties it’s not often that you make a new friend. We sent our cattle down to the show in the same lorry, our cattle were penned next door to each other and our handlers mucked in and helped each other. Come show day in July, thousands of Kenyans from all over the country were there to see fine cattle and all kinds of farm animals. There were brass bands and speeches and all manner of amusements. In the ring my two young bulls were mere lightweights up against huge beasts from other long-established, famous Boran cattle studs. The show judge Mr Kaspar Gunzel, a rancher from Namibia, praised the bulls colourfully. ‘I have never seen a Boran with such a good sheath. I would like a bull with a sheath like that…’ Or, ‘Tremendous, wide back. He’s so wide you could lie on his back with your wife…’ George, the first Aggett to show his family Borans in a century, started to win — and he just kept winning: champion female, best bull under two, best bull under three. At the end of the show, as he quietly sipped a Tusker, his table was laden with rosettes and trophies. To cap it all, one of his bulls achieved the highest price at the auction, an exciting spectacle that really pulls in the crowds. To cheer me up George bought me a Tusker. Somebody comforted me with the comment, ‘Don’t worry. You’re a young stud with years of growth ahead of you…’ I’m 51. Of his victories all George said was, ‘That was OK. We did alright.’ And he got in his Cessna and flew back to his farm. A few days ago George flew to Naivasha, where a farming family was grieving over the loss of a relative. During the social get-together somebody suggested a ride in George’s aircraft. What exactly happened next is still unclear to me but after take-off the Cessna crashed and burned, instantly killing a young woman called Berenika. George heroically tried to save her but it was too late and he was pulled from the flaming wreckage. George was very severely burned and succumbed to his injuries a few days later. He was just 50. George has left his family a fine ranch and he’s left behind some fine cattle too.