Glorified Park Keepers

[glensman]

Nah, that's because they're not trying to farm in/next to the 'Garden of England', light chalky loam, perfect climate to grow pretty much anything, rather than the west of Scotland, Cumbria and Wales where it's pee'd down almost every day for the last 3 years

Don't forget N.ire

 

[Bald Rick]

The INCO Mond nickel refinery in the Swansea Valley has an estate farm around it, and back in the day it employed a bailiff to farm it.

The bailiff was a conscientious farmer, but hardly ever a happy one - back then INCO was the world's biggest nickel producer (since bought for $19 billion by Brazil's Vale) and its farm served both as a 'green screen' to the works and as attractive surroundings for the works social club and golf course. And everyone appreciates nice surroundings, right?

Except the bailiff - instead, he measured his success by the farm's P&L. So the various "do's and don't's" drove him crazy. Mostly "don't's", of course - don't spread muck when they're playing golf (most of the time), don't shout at employees taking a shortcut over the fields (most of the time), don't out-winter cattle ('winter' being 6 months of the year, in the Swansea Valley), etc.

You get the idea - the farm bailiff measured his success against the farm's P&L, whilst the farm's owner measured success by how agreeable the bailiff made the farm - and himself - appear.

I can see the poor chap now, in my mind's eye, declaring "one day, young Walterp, you'll all be bloody glorified park keepers like me..."

Was the bailiff's prophesy right?

Actually I think you will find that INCO were obliged to have a farm around the factory in order to sample soils & blood to ensure that nickel wasn't reaching "danger" points. Anglesey Aluminium had to do exactly the same thing.
Perhaps the bailiff was not a fan of sampling?