Anguilla’s businessman and farmer, Mr Albert A R Lake, is by far the largest cattle owner on the island and the beef he sells in his supermarket comes from his own teeming ranch.
A trip to Shoal Bay, when the cows are feeding near the main road, will reveal an enormous herd of the brown-skin animals grazing peacefully on the large acreage extending a long way to the west.
Animal husbandry is an occupation that Mr Lake inherited from his late father, Mr Bertie Lake, who was the leading supplier of fresh cow milk at a time when the now pasteurised dairy product was non-existent in Anguilla.
“I do not know the exact figure right now, but I should have close to a hundred cattle,” Mr Lake told The Anguililian. “They are different mixed breeds and are all from the original flock which I moved from The Quarter. I have been an owner of cattle for the last seventy-five years. I came meeting my people with cattle, goats and sheep. I continued that tradition and never stopped.
“I have over 300 acres of land from the main road at Shoal Bay down [to] where I pasture cattle and goats and feed pigs, but the dogs and the thieves have almost exhausted the goats.”
Mr Lake was asked how his cattle trade was faring.
“I am always selling them, and I butcher some,” he replied. “All the beef in my supermarket is from the cattle I raise – yeah. I used to have over a thousand goats…at one time…Mr father had cattle which he sold and butchered too and, like other people, he supplied milk to a number of persons. I used to supply milk as well and Bummy [Mr Lake’s son], in his childhood days, used to help milk the cattle and sell the milk by the litre.”
Mr Lake, who is also known for his cultivation of various food crops, some of which often turn up in season at his supermarket, added: “Everybody going to, or coming from, Shoal Bay, always talk about seeing the cattle.”
