25 Interesting Stories About Farmers

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1Farmers

Farmers

Research in U.K. has shown that farmers who called their cows by name reported 258 liters of higher milk yield than those who did not.


2. In 1983, a 61-year-old potato farmer named Cliff Young won the inaugural Westfield Sydney to Melbourne Ultramarathon, a distance of 875 kilometers (544 mi), almost two days faster than the previous record for any run between Sydney and Melbourne. He ran at a slow, loping pace, and trailed the pack by a large margin at the end of the first day. While the other competitors stopped to sleep for 6 hours however, Young kept running. He ran continuously for five days, taking the lead during the first night, and eventually winning by ten hours.


3. A Chinese farmer named Wang Enlin studied law for 16 years to defeat a corporation dumping hazardous chemical waste near his land.


4. In 1910, 10,000 Iowan farmers built 380 miles of road (River-to-River Road) (entire width of the state) in one hour on a Saturday morning.


5. Italian farmer Riccardo Bertani who is one of the most proficient polyglot ever left the studies after elementary school and taught himself more than 100 languages.


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6Piss Off Biggles

Piss Off Biggles

In the '80s, a Welsh farmer grew so fed up with RAF flying so low over his house that he painted "Piss Off Biggles" in giant letters on the roof of his barn. This prompted the RAF to use the barn as a navigational landmark although flying higher to respect his wishes.


7. Farmers in Kenya are using elephants' natural fears of bees and building "beehive fences" that keep wild elephants from trampling the crops. It keeps the farms safe and prevents farmers from having to kill elephants to defend their livelihood.


8. A farmer sued the US government in 1946 after military planes flew too low over his farm, startling and causing his chickens to kill themselves by flying into the walls. He claimed the government should compensate him because he owned the air above his farm.


9. In 2004, farmers in India used Pepsi and Coca Cola instead of pesticides because they were cheaper and got the job done just as well.


10. An Australian farmer named Prince Leonard of Hutt protested government-imposed wheat quotas by ceding from Australia and creating his own country. The country, the Principality of Hutt River still exists and he is the king.


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11Gao XianZhang

Gao XianZhang

A Chinese farmer named Gao XianZhang developed a way to make pears grow in the shape of little baby Buddhas by using plastic molds.


12. Belgian farmers are required by law to "care for the emotional well-being of their pigs" which often includes giving them toys to play with. 


13. Farmers differentiate watermelon by gender. "Boy" watermelons are longer and more watery, while "girl" watermelons are rounder and sweeter.


14. In 1978, the farmers in a small Chinese village called Xiaogang gathered in a mud hut to sign a secret contract, which split the village's collective farm into individual farms for each family. This gave them incentive to work harder as it was their personal property. They thought this decision might get them executed, but the plan was a massive success and became a future model for the rest of China.


15. A farmer named Fred Tuttle won the 1998 Republican primary for Vermont senator. He would ask his opponent, a millionaire "carpetbagger" from Massachusetts, questions at debates that only Vermonters would know. Tuttle would endorse his Democratic opponent of whom Tuttle said, "He knows how many tits on a cow."


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16Aníbal Milhais

Aníbal Milhais

A Portuguese farmer named Aníbal Milhais turned soldier, held off two attacking German divisions with a Lewis Machine Gun solo, forcing them to bypass and eventually surround him. After not eating or drinking for 3 days, he rescued a trapped Scottish major and returned to Entente lines.


17. In 1922, a German farmer found footprints leading from the woods to his farm, but no footprints going back. Days later he was murdered along with his whole family. The crime has never been solved.


18. In 1945, a farmer named Lloyd Olsen chopped off a chicken's head and missed the jugular vein. A clot formed and some of the brains stem survived, providing basic homeostasis functions. Mike the headless chicken toured in sideshows for 18 months and earned the farmer $4,500 per month at the peak of his popularity.


19. In 2006, a German rabbit farmer named Karl Szmolinsky sent 12 giant rabbits (the size of dogs) to North Korea for the purpose of a breeding program, but he refused to send more after realizing that officials might have eaten the rabbits instead of breeding them.


20. A British farmer named Robert Fidler in Surrey built a faux castle and hid it behind a towering wall of haystacks and tarps for 4 years trying to exploit a legal loophole that said a building was legal if no one complained about its presence for 4 years.


21Icelandic farmers

Icelandic farmers

On August 25, 1970, a group of Icelandic farmers blew up a dam project on the Laxá River that would have swept away their farms. Around 100 farmers turned themselves in but no one would snitch on who lit the fuse. They all walked free.


22. An Indian farmer named Lal Bihari discovered that he had been declared legally dead when he tried to apply for a bank loan. He then spent 19 years trying to prove to the government he was actually alive.


23. On June 10, 1876, farmer, self-proclaimed inventor and Civil War veteran James Moon rode into Lafayette and got a room. He bought an ax and some iron plates, claiming to be "inventing an instrument for making fruit baskets." The next day, he was found beheaded by a crudely built guillotine.


24. Around 1500 A.D., an African farmer planted a maize seed imported from the New World. Today, maize accounts for more than half the calories people consume in many African countries. Maize supplanted Africa’s own historical grain crops—sorghum, millet, and rice.


25. In 1859, an American farmer named Lyman Cutlar in the San Juan Islands shot a pig who was eating his potatoes, but the pig happened to belong to a British colonist. The conflict escalated to involve 461 Americans and 14 artillery against 5 British warships with 70 cannons and 2140 men. The only casualty was the pig.

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1 COMMENT

  1. I live in Washington State. # 25 is THE GREAT PIG WAR! Yeah, it ended with a bbq. Brits and US folk had a nice supper, the culprit was eaten. And the US DECLARED WAR ON CANADA and then UNDECLARED IT PDQ because us Maritime Pacific Northwesterners (Canadian & USians) aren’t into that violent ridiculousness.

    930

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