Regional words, terms and phrases.

Jockers84

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Caithness
Good afternoon, I've been a long term follower of the farming forum, as a new start some of the things I've learnt have been truly priceless.

One thing that has struck me though, is every so often I will find a word, term or phrase that I'm just not 100% on what it means. This isn't limited to TFF, it also happens at livestock auctions, weekly farming publications and at the Vet if it's a locum or graduate.
I've put up this post so whenever anyone finds a word there not too sure on they can add a comment and hopefully someone can tell them/me what it actually means?

First - "Theaves" When referring to sheep, what does this mean?

Second - Selling ewes with lambs at foot, what does it mean when you see "a lamb and a half" Is that a ewe with a pair and a ewe with a single?

Might seem daft to some folk but there's plenty local dialects out there.

Cheers
 

Hesstondriver

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Huntingdon

east anglian phrase

Docky = lunch / mid morning break,

also Docky time & docky bag !

Why is it called a docky bag? Well, docky is an East Anglian word that means lunch, so it is a lunch bag. But the word and the object carry more than a flask of tea: farm laborer right through to the mid twentieth century had their pay docked if they took a lunch break. So the ‘docky bag’ is a complex reminder of social status and of human rights. The bag puts the agricultural workers of the fens into the long history of protest for better working conditions and fair pay.

i used to think it was an international phrase , until i left Cambridgeshire and got a few blank looks when i asked about stopping for docky :ROFLMAO:
 

Farmer Fin

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Aberdeenshire
here is a question, am I remembering right, when I can recall my grandfather talking about "cropping Sally trees", I have also never heard anyone else talking about using a "beetle" to knock in fence posts, or a "hacker" to split kindling wood.

I wonder whether Barley Ails is a local expression too? (Barley Awn)?
We hack sticks for kindling up here too.
 

primmiemoo

Member
Location
Devon
Good afternoon, I've been a long term follower of the farming forum, as a new start some of the things I've learnt have been truly priceless.

One thing that has struck me though, is every so often I will find a word, term or phrase that I'm just not 100% on what it means. This isn't limited to TFF, it also happens at livestock auctions, weekly farming publications and at the Vet if it's a locum or graduate.
I've put up this post so whenever anyone finds a word there not too sure on they can add a comment and hopefully someone can tell them/me what it actually means?

First - "Theaves" When referring to sheep, what does this mean?

Second - Selling ewes with lambs at foot, what does it mean when you see "a lamb and a half" Is that a ewe with a pair and a ewe with a single?

Might seem daft to some folk but there's plenty local dialects out there.

Cheers

Theaves? Well, I didn't know until now that there is a northern boundary for the term as well as a southern one!
They are two-tooth ewes. That's when their first two adult teeth have risen at the front of the jaw.

Ewes with lambs at foot are rearing their lambs. A ewe with one lamb at foot is a single couple. With two at foot is a double couple, etc.

A lamb and a half makes me think of an exceptionally good lamb, but I don't think that's it's meaning. I'll wait with you to see what others say :)
 

Lowland1

Member
Mixed Farmer
east anglian phrase

Docky = lunch / mid morning break,

also Docky time & docky bag !

Why is it called a docky bag? Well, docky is an East Anglian word that means lunch, so it is a lunch bag. But the word and the object carry more than a flask of tea: farm laborer right through to the mid twentieth century had their pay docked if they took a lunch break. So the ‘docky bag’ is a complex reminder of social status and of human rights. The bag puts the agricultural workers of the fens into the long history of protest for better working conditions and fair pay.

i used to think it was an international phrase , until i left Cambridgeshire and got a few blank looks when i asked about stopping for docky :ROFLMAO:
I like the idea of lunch being the mid morning break I thought that was just a Lincolnshire thing.
 

Werzle

Member
Location
Midlands
Good afternoon, I've been a long term follower of the farming forum, as a new start some of the things I've learnt have been truly priceless.

One thing that has struck me though, is every so often I will find a word, term or phrase that I'm just not 100% on what it means. This isn't limited to TFF, it also happens at livestock auctions, weekly farming publications and at the Vet if it's a locum or graduate.
I've put up this post so whenever anyone finds a word there not too sure on they can add a comment and hopefully someone can tell them/me what it actually means?

First - "Theaves" When referring to sheep, what does this mean?

Second - Selling ewes with lambs at foot, what does it mean when you see "a lamb and a half" Is that a ewe with a pair and a ewe with a single?

Might seem daft to some folk but there's plenty local dialects out there.

Cheers
6 ewes with 9 lambs would be classed as having a lamb and a half in market terms
 

Werzle

Member
Location
Midlands
here is a question, am I remembering right, when I can recall my grandfather talking about "cropping Sally trees", I have also never heard anyone else talking about using a "beetle" to knock in fence posts, or a "hacker" to split kindling wood.

I wonder whether Barley Ails is a local expression too? (Barley Awn)?
We crop sallys, it means pollarding willow trees. A hacker is a hedging tool but we would call a anything smaller than an axe a hacker. A scythe/billhook is a hedgebill here too.
 

Jockers84

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Caithness
east anglian phrase

Docky = lunch / mid morning break,

also Docky time & docky bag !

Why is it called a docky bag? Well, docky is an East Anglian word that means lunch, so it is a lunch bag. But the word and the object carry more than a flask of tea: farm laborer right through to the mid twentieth century had their pay docked if they took a lunch break. So the ‘docky bag’ is a complex reminder of social status and of human rights. The bag puts the agricultural workers of the fens into the long history of protest for better working conditions and fair pay.

i used to think it was an international phrase , until i left Cambridgeshire and got a few blank looks when i asked about stopping for docky :ROFLMAO:

That's a "half yoking" up this way, cup of tea and biscuit mid morning, love it.
 

Jockers84

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Caithness
Theaves? Well, I didn't know until now that there is a northern boundary for the term as well as a southern one!
They are two-tooth ewes. That's when their first two adult teeth have risen at the front of the jaw.

Ewes with lambs at foot are rearing their lambs. A ewe with one lamb at foot is a single couple. With two at foot is a double couple, etc.

A lamb and a half makes me think of an exceptionally good lamb, but I don't think that's it's meaning. I'll wait with you to see what others say :)

That's a gimmer with us, remember I'm at the opposite end of the island though. Wonder if the "theaves" name originates with stealing lambs?
 

adam_farming

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Suffolk
How many names are there for the runs up and down a field when the headland is encountered at an angle, so a triangle shaped piece is left? Scoots, Running work, Short work, etc I'm sure there are load more.
Same goes for headlands: end rigs, turn rows, outside breeds. In the US most seemed to call them the end rows, but that was mainly on corn/maize where they literally were rows
 

Lowland1

Member
Mixed Farmer
How many names are there for the runs up and down a field when the headland is encountered at an angle, so a triangle shaped piece is left? Scoots, Running work, Short work, etc I'm sure there are load more.
Same goes for headlands: end rigs, turn rows, outside breeds. In the US most seemed to call them the end rows, but that was mainly on corn/maize where they literally were rows
Short runs are gorings but here on our center pivots our headlands are called roundabouts not by me though.
 

primmiemoo

Member
Location
Devon
How many names are there for the runs up and down a field when the headland is encountered at an angle, so a triangle shaped piece is left? Scoots, Running work, Short work, etc I'm sure there are load more.
Same goes for headlands: end rigs, turn rows, outside breeds. In the US most seemed to call them the end rows, but that was mainly on corn/maize where they literally were rows

Is that where the name for braiding hair in rows comes from? Corn rows?
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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