Some farmers’ tales must be taken with a grain of salt
One of the first lessons my father taught me was that in farming when you gave your word that was your bond. As a small boy accompanying him to market, I would watch as he and the grain or potato merchant would haggle on price before shaking hands on a deal.
I have missed out the bit where both participants spat on their hands to help seal the deal as I used to get it in the neck from my mother for practising this part of the ceremony with my little sister.
The point dad made was that farming operated in a fairly close knit community, so you played by the rules. There was, he said, a risk of getting a ‘reputation’ for jiggery-pokery or worse if you did not. The latter threat was often accompanied by a stern warning that I would end up “in the burning fires of hell” if I did not abide by thehand-shakinganddealkeeping convention.
Thus I was brought up believing that farming was a profession free from the rascals and vagabonds that operated in other parts of society.
All went well until after leaving school I went to work with a local farm co-operative. On entering the office, there was a big sign stating unequivocally “Only the managing director is allowed to do business with Farmer XXXX”.
It did not take long for office gossip to reveal the reason behind the notice. The farmer was renowned for trying to beat the system and take advantage of young sales representatives. An easy example of his shenanigans would be a load of bulk grain from him would invariably have a thin layer of good grain on top of a heap of poor stuff and even the sweepings from the shed.
I then heard about how he dealt with any of his old ewes that had succeeded in their life’s ambition to die. He would take the dead beast along to the railway line that came through his farm. The carcase was then thrownontothelinewhere it was minced up by the next train. A hefty claim was then made against the train operators for this broken-mouthed old ewe which had miraculously been transformed into a prize winning and expensive example of its breed.
I soon realised that while there is a core of farmers and others in the industry who keep their word and who play by the rules of the wider society, there are others who range from minor misdemeanours through to downright scallywaggery and criminal endeavour.
At the lower end of the chicanery as a farming reporter following local shows and sales, I would be given information on a prize winner’s parentage. Surprisingly, this would vary week by week to suit the occasion. The owners would then often embellish the wins the animal was supposed to have gained. Whether this type of misrepresentation was deliberate or merely fanciful I did not question although I often wondered about adding to the end of the report “information as supplied by the owners”.
Then there are the many, many rumours of late registrations of young livestock with pedigree breed societies as this swindling helps create a seemingly faster growth rate for the said beast when it comes to be sold. I will say no more at this time as this practice seems to be quite rampant just now.
I have no personal knowledge of the tricks that are alleged to take place in the showing of dairy cattle but I do know that there are some practices which make a champion cow look even more extreme and which cannot be described in any way as welfare-friendly.
Then there are cases where the misdeeds are criminal. One of the latest examples centres on two farmers recently convicted of stealing cattle from another farmer.
This crime was not off the cuff. It was planned and it was against a fellow farmer. Many in the industry might consider the pair were mighty lucky to get off with a form of community service and not spend the next few months in the clink. Despite all these examples of skullduggery and deception I have come across, my advice to anyone entering the farming industry is to be honest but to also watch out for those who are not.