3 ms·

This is a good article. I'm a livestock farmer and a few lines really stuck: 1. We are incredibly grateful to our knackerman. The old one retired at about 70,

This is a good article. I'm a livestock farmer and a few lines really stuck: 1. We are incredibly grateful to our knackerman. The old one retired at about 70, and the newer guy is spot on. Calm, patient and pleasant to people and animals. 2. British farming (focusing on Britain here as the article does) has a crap safety record. Follow lens_leg[1] for a feed of UK farming casualties. It's saddening. But over this last year holy fuck has mental health taken a dive with the rest of the world. And that won't help physical safety/health 3. The author of this piece is correct when they say no farmer wants to see the knackerman. We hate having to call him out. But we do, because it's the right thing for an animal in distress. And unless it's a true emergency, we'd rather he euthanised the animal for us. He's more skilled and has less emotional involvement. Killing something - even if it's needed - isn't easy. 4. A request: Please don't lump UK farming in with the other countries farming practices for welfare and environmental practices. We surely do have our faults, but are also making great strides in making farming better. For example RUMA[2] for antibiotic usage and the NFU targeting net zero emissions by 2040[3] [1] https://twitter.com/lens_leg https://twitter.com/lens_leg [2] https://www.ruma.org.uk/eu-continues-reductions-in-farm-antibiotic-use-with-uk-still-well-placed/ https://www.ruma.org.uk/eu-continues-reductions-in-farm-anti... [3] https://www.nfuonline.com/nfu-online/business/regulation/achieving-net-zero-farmings-2040-goal/ https://www.nfuonline.com/nfu-online/business/regulation/ach... Edit: Formatting

petewailes 5y ago
Hear hear. Bumkin born and bred, living on the welsh borders and everyone around us is in farming in some way. I'm genuinely afraid for what the next 12 months will have in store in terms of the rates of things resulting for poor mental health for those in farming professions. It's been a terrible period.
- meristohm 5y ago
  If you’re familiar with George Monbiot’s rewilding efforts, described in his book Feral (and presumably The Guardian articles as well), what do you feel, and what do you think? My understanding is that the Welsh landscape has changed considerably over the past 800 years, in large part due to logging and sheep, and in its current state it is less resilient than it used to be; more erosion and less diversity of living things. I’m in favor of expanding beaver territory in the USA to change the land similar to what happened in Yellowstone, for example. I don’t have a long family history here, though, which makes it easier to daydream about culture shifts.
- jimnotgym 5y ago
  Hello fellow borderer! It would take an essay as long as the op article to do this justice, but the farming community in this area is spectacularly insular, inward looking and isolationist. And I would know I am related to several. A year of Covid, and the new trading arrangements with the EU changing so many things is going to play havoc with mental health. Truly scary times.
lostlogin 5y ago
Thanks for this. Regarding your point 4 - has the progress reducing antibiotic use continued post Brexit? I was under the impression that there were moves to slow/revert some of that once the EU had less say.
- throwawayfarmer 5y ago
  I’m not sure about the whole of UK agriculture, but in our bit things have got even tighter. That’s a good thing!

petewailes 5y ago

Hear hear. Bumkin born and bred, living on the welsh borders and everyone around us is in farming in some way. I'm genuinely afraid for what the next 12 months will have in store in terms of the rates of things resulting for poor mental health for those in farming professions. It's been a terrible period.

meristohm 5y ago
If you’re familiar with George Monbiot’s rewilding efforts, described in his book Feral (and presumably The Guardian articles as well), what do you feel, and what do you think? My understanding is that the Welsh landscape has changed considerably over the past 800 years, in large part due to logging and sheep, and in its current state it is less resilient than it used to be; more erosion and less diversity of living things. I’m in favor of expanding beaver territory in the USA to change the land similar to what happened in Yellowstone, for example. I don’t have a long family history here, though, which makes it easier to daydream about culture shifts.
jimnotgym 5y ago
Hello fellow borderer! It would take an essay as long as the op article to do this justice, but the farming community in this area is spectacularly insular, inward looking and isolationist. And I would know I am related to several. A year of Covid, and the new trading arrangements with the EU changing so many things is going to play havoc with mental health. Truly scary times.

lostlogin 5y ago

Thanks for this. Regarding your point 4 - has the progress reducing antibiotic use continued post Brexit? I was under the impression that there were moves to slow/revert some of that once the EU had less say.

throwawayfarmer 5y ago
I’m not sure about the whole of UK agriculture, but in our bit things have got even tighter. That’s a good thing!