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]
A long day, but it was satisfying.
Plus the animals don’t know it’s Christmas.