In September 1967, Major & Mrs. Le Feuvre (Arthur and May) travelled with their four children (Philip, Stephen, Catherine and Timothy) to Kenya. As Salvation Army officers they had been appointed to run the Salvation Army Farm which was five miles east of Thika, some thirty miles north of Nairobi. The Avontuur Estate had been owned by an Australian, Mr. Focks, who had settled in South Africa, and then moved up to Kenya at the end of the Second World War. Mr. Focks left Kenya in 1962 prior to the country gaining independence from the British. The Salvation Army acquired Avontuur, and established a Farmers' Training Centre where groups of 40 or so small-scale farmers would come to learn aspects of good farm husbandary in short one and two week courses.

Avontuur is an area of the Cape Province in South Africa, and because of the connotations of the apratheid system operated in southern Africa during the 1960's, the name of the farm was then changed to Avonteur, which gave the name more of a "French" feel to it. Avonteur was 1,000 acres of good, rich farmland but in an area of fairly low rainfall - varying between 15" and 25" per year. At 5,500 feet above sea level, coffee was able to be grown, and a 30 acre plantation produced a very significant income in most years. Through the farm ran the Chania River, a fast flowing source of crucial irrigation water for the coffee, lucerne/alfafa grass, pasture for young stock, 100 acres of maize (including seed maize) and the demonstration plots at the Farmers' Training Centre.

In addition, a further 600 acres became available from neighbouring estates from time to time from the early 1970's, the adjacent land being suitable for grazing, whilst the rest was used for a "cut and cart" system. Avonteur was part surrounded by an 80,000 acre estate which until 1969 was the Anglo-French Sisal Estate, afterwhich it was turned over exclusively to a pineapple plantation, owned and run by Kenya Canners Ltd (a subsidiary of Del Monte). From the early 1970's, pineapple waste products from the canning factory some two miles from the farm, proved a vital source of bulk forrage feed for the herds of cattle, goats, sheep and pigs which Avonteur supported.

For the first five years after 1962, the farm was run by Major Chris Jorgensen from Denmark. During that time the new dairy was built, as was a large machinery shed and three silage towers. The water to all parts of the farm was developed, and a dam was built to store water for irrigating the coffee and forage crops. On the cattle front, Major Jorgensen "inherited" a herd of mixed dairy breeds, predominantly Ayrshire and Guernsey, but with also some Jersey, Friesland and Red Poll cows, and a large number of mixed breed cows. He experimented by crossing the whole herd with the Sahiwal breed for a period of just three years. This produced some extremely useful dual purpose animals, and these were extremely hardy in the very dry conditions in this part of Kenya, well suited to the "dairy-ranching" form of husbandry that the farm lended itself to.

Levels of milk production at Avonteur depended very much on the amount of rainfall experienced by the farm in the two rainy seasons. The "long rains" from April to June and the "short rains" during October and November, often failed. It was extremely rare for rain to fall anytime outside of those two periods, and shade temperatures sored in the intervening months to well over 100 degrees Farenheit. Conservation of forage was the key to survival, and this was relieved somewhat when pineapple waste became available in the early 1970's. Very limited amounts of concentrate protein feed was able to be fed as it was not always available, and when it was it proved uneconomical to feed other than to the high-producing pedigree animals.

Virtually every heifer calf born was kept, and those not retained as replacements for the Avonteur herd were sold to smale-scale farmers, many having previously attended courses at the Farmers' Training Centre. All bull calves were also retained and reared for up to six months providing "baby beef/veal" which was sold locally and in Nairobi. A pig herd of up to 40 sows was a very successful mini-enterprise on the farm, and the superb pork produced was in great demand both locally and in the hotels of Nairobi. Excess piglets were sold mainly to small-scale farmers.

Showing cattle at local, regional and national agricultural shows began in 1970, and this provided much-needed publicity to raise the profile of the Avonteur Herd. Major Le Feuvre and his second son, Stephen (Steve), were very keen members of both the Jersey Cattle Society of Kenya and also the Ayrshire Cattle Society of Kenya, and regularly exhibited cattle of both breeds at three or four shows every year up until 1976. After a few years of success in the showring, combined with the quality of the cattle on offer at the twice-yearly "cattle sale days" held on the farm, premium prices were realised. Never afraid to sell some of our best animals for good prices, cattle purchases were also made on a regular basis, including the entire Komo Herd of sixty head in 1972.

Perhaps the biggest influence on the herd was the importation from the Island of Jersey of the eight-week old heifer Regal Bel Respiro Rose in October 1970. "Honey", as she was affectionately known, was donated by Stewart Mourant of St. Helier, Jersey and the cost of transporting her to Kenya was met by the Young People's Corp. of the Salvation Army in St. Helier. "Honey" very soon became a household name in Kenya, and we began showing her at cattle shows in 1972. By 1976 she was considered to be one of the best show/production cows of any breed in Kenya. For full details on "Honey" please click here

In July 1976, Steve left Kenya to attend university in the U.K., and later that year Arthur and May returned to the U.K. after over nine years of missionary service. Unfortunately, the following year virtually the whole Avonteur Herd perished to East Coast Fever, a tick-borne disease which is prevented by regular weekly spraying/dipping of animals with an insecticide. Due to lack of proper management of the herd, only 50 or so survived this cruel but totally avoidable disease.

To see a selection of the Avonteur Herd in Kenya, please click here

Move on several years..........Steve graduated from university in 1979, and moved to Jersey. He met Suzanne Le Quesne later that year (at a cattle show!!), and they began farming in 1980. In April 1981 they married and with a few weeks took on the tenancy of The Elms, St. Mary (a National Trust for Jersey property) and started milking up to 40 cows, taking on as their herd prefix the name "Avonteur". Phase two of the Avonteur Story was now under way.

Steve & Suzanne soon established a fine herd of type and production cows, and regularly showed them at Parish and Island shows. Production of the Avonteur Herd was well above the Island herd average right from the start, and some fine examples of the breed were developed and bred in a short space of time. In late 1984 it was time to take stock and move forward and expand the enterprise, or else take on a new lease at The Elms with the inevitable restriction of cow numbers to 40 maximum. Various options of larger farms were investigated, but nothing suitable came up for rent or purchase during the six month period when decisions had to be taken. Consequently, the Avonteur Herd was dispersed in May 1985, and Steve and Suzanne moved on to carve out other careers in St. Helier.

To see a selection of the Avonteur Herd in Jersey from the days of The Elms, please click here

Cattle with the Avonteur prefix remain to this day. Steve & Suzanne's daughters, Joanne and Victoria, have been very active Junior Section members of the R.J.A. & H.S. since they were both five years old when they were given small calves. Their animals have achieved considerable success in the show-ring over the years, and for many years they were "boarded" in the high-production Camrose Herd of Chris and Claire Taylor. Following the dispersal of the Camrose Herd in 2002, the Avonteur cattle moved to Trinity Manor Farm, where they continue to flourish. Quite rightly, "passengers" cannot and will not be tolerated, so the Avonteur cows of today are very good type and prodution cows indeed.

To see a selection of the present-day Avonteur Herd in Jersey, please click here