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The knackerman: the toughest job in British farming

theguardian.com

31–40 of 75 posts

Re: The knackerman: the toughest job in British farming

#34

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 las…

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.

Re: The knackerman: the toughest job in British farming

#35
post #24
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Knacker" is a somewhat oldish word for "old guy" in german - maybe related? Also comes from the word "knack" with the same meaning as in dutch.

And “Knacker” is also a sausage because it “knacks” when you break it in half. Knack in German has the meaning snap or crack.

I’m glad you added the origin - sausages made from old or diseased animals don’t sound great.

Re: The knackerman: the toughest job in British farming

#36
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Knacker" is a somewhat oldish word for "old guy" in german - maybe related? Also comes from the word "knack" with the same meaning as in dutch.

It's also a very derogatory word in Ireland for a member of the travelling/gypsy community.

We also use knackers and knackers yard in Ireland to refer to people who dispose of dead farm animals.

Re: The knackerman: the toughest job in British farming

#37

I have had the weird experience of dispersing a dead whale, stuck in an urban shore. No explosives allowed, no toeing, no T. rex, no light saber ... and a ticking gas bomb indeed.

I assume you’re referencing this exploding whale - an internet classic.

Or do you usually use explosives? Here they are cut up and buried - the bones are often kept for carving.

https://news.yahoo.com/oregon-regrettably-exploded-8-ton-043...

Re: The knackerman: the toughest job in British farming

#38

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 las…

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.

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.

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