PAUL Martin has hung up his stethoscope and stowed away his trademark waders after 36 years as a vet with North Park Veterinary Group in North Tawton. Here he talks to reporter Sarah Pitt about the highs and lows of caring for the cows, pigs and sheep of mid Devon.

PAUL Martin is known for his waders at North Park Veterinary Group. He has seldom been seen without them in his 36 years as a vet with the practice.

‘One of my veterinary nurses was teasing me because she can even remember me doing a dog caesarian in my waders,’ he says. ‘My top half was nice and clean, obviously. That was a while ago, mind you!

‘My waders are always ready by the door at home for when I get called out in the middle of the night. You can have some pretty deep mud on these farms and when a cow decides to give you a good kick, waders are quite a good idea, they do help protect you.’

Paul, now 61, first joined the practice back in the snowy winter of 1981, a newly qualified vet with a new wife, Jane, a nurse. They’ve been here ever since, bringing up their two children and now have a baby grandson in the town.

‘We got married in September 1979 and that was probably the most important decision of my life,’ says Paul. ‘ I don’t think the farmers always realise how important having a supportive wife is to the vet. I have always had tea on the table and the phone answered for me. We’ve had a good life here.

‘We came here Christmas 1981 and within three days of getting here I had dented the front of the car, which my colleagues thought was hilarious. I was going up Appledore Hill in the snow and the car decided to go off the road. You can still see the dent in the fence if you look carefully. It was quite a severe winter and we were in rented accommodation, with the snow coming through the windows. Then we bought a house in North Tawton and we’ve been here ever since.

‘When I first came here the practice was 90% large animals with a few horses, dogs and cats, so I’m very much a farm vet,’ he says.

‘One of the hardest things about the job is dealing with people. I’m actually much happier with animals. You do have to have empathy with the animals to be a vet. They can sense your mood. Dairy cows were used to being handled, whereas some of the beef cattle are pretty wild!’

Paul grew up on a poultry farm in Wiltshire and his father also worked as a herdsman so he was used to being around cattle. ‘I got good O- levels — I was lucky enough to go to grammar school — but I knew I wasn’t that good with people. Whenever we had a dead chicken, though, I would open it up and do a postmortem on the kitchen table. My cousin said “why don’t you become a vet?”’

He did his five years’ vet’s training to qualify in Bristol although the learning didn’t stop when he graduated. Much of that has taken place on the job.

‘I was greatly helped by the senior vets in this practice when I first came here; there were two or three vets who taught me all sorts of things. There is definitely both an art and a science to becoming a vet. I’ve considered it normal, too, to pass things on in my turn.’

There is now much more small animal work in the practice than when Paul came to North Tawton. ‘We now do about 40% small animal work. And when I first started we had just two and a half support staff, and we’ve got more than 25 now. We only had six vets when I came here. Now we have 11.’

Out on the farms, things have also changed over the years.

‘When I first came here, we’d probably get one if not two calls a night and we’d work one night in two but you’d always get a piece of cake and a cup of tea from the farmer’s wife. It wasn’t James Herriot exactly but it was much that way inclined, whereas now everyone has to make a living, everyone is in a hurry.

‘It used to be the wife who would do the paperwork on the farm but that isn’t the case often anymore. They have to work off the farm.’

The thing, though, that hasn’t changed are the animals. Paul says he still gets a kick out of seeing a sick animal recover and a calf or lamb being born even if it is the middle of the night. He only stopped doing night work about five years ago.

’A good lambing, a good calving, just generally seeing an animal get better,’ he says. ‘Those are the enjoyable parts of the job for me. Going out to a farm and knowing that the stock are under my control and that they are all looking fit and healthy.’

Of course, that is not always the case. The foot and mouth crisis of 2001, which badly affected this part of Devon, saw Paul, in common with other vets, work for the government department Defra testing cattle and sheep for foot and mouth and often having to deliver grim news that animals would have to be put down.

‘At one point, I even got involved in shooting some of my own client’s stock. It wasn’t nice and it wasn’t pleasant but the farmers did survive; we did help the farmers through it.’

In more recent years, he’s undertaken TB testing, which sees the responsibility for the future of a farmer’s herd rest on the vet’s shoulders.

‘About a quarter of our clients have herd restrictions due to TB so that has been a major part of my work,’ he said. ‘It is quite hard work, quite draining.’

Paul’s last day at the practice was just before Christmas although he’s not yet had his official leaving do. That’s taking place at North Tawton Rugby Club next week.

He says he is looking forward to taking it a bit easy and won’t be taking up keeping cattle as a hobby, even though he did once help a client show prize cattle at Okehampton Show. ‘I’ve got two cats, and they keep me up enough at night!’ he said.

He treasures so many memories. Like the time he went to a Christmas Day lambing with his daughter, then five, and another incident, which shows that cows really do have personalities. ‘I calved a Galloway cow on the edge of the moor and facilities were somewhat rickety but we got a live calf. The moment the calf bellowed, the cow broke out and luckily for us, the farmer went one way and I went the other. I’ll never forget the look on the cow’s face, though. It was “damn, I’ve missed them both!”‘

Paul Martin’s colleagues at North Park Veterinary Group will be throwing him a farewell party to give farmers the chance to wish him well tomorrow evening, January 26, at 7.30pm at North Tawton Rugby Club. Please call the practice on 01837 82327 if you'd like to come along.