The Archers - It's Full Of Pants! Listeners are allegedly leaving in droves. Will Peggy also FOHMC?

[PseudoBadger]

She's got a whole calendar to use!

I wondered about Tom too. Maybe his phone's still switched off.

I'm pleased to see Peggy's leg seems better. Nothing like your son having a much worse injury to make you forget the pain of your own leg sprain or whatever. I wonder if it's all the diversion though and she will end up with a broken bone down the line. Before T's accident she was in such pain, it seemed.

Do you think Jess will move in to the cottage - even having a home birth! - while Knob and H and H are settling in to Bridge Farm. I wonder what the rules about eviction are, esp. as it was previously the marital home.

The Wedemption of Wob made me laugh!

Waltzing would a bull be slaughtered in these circumstances? Couldn't they just sell him?

Rob is clearly delighted with the golden opportunity to increase his ratings with the in-laws. His final comment tonight was chilling.

And yes, why no mention of contacting Tom? That's just bizarre.

Re. Ottoburgers or selling as a stock bull....

Could or would you sell a dog that had bitten somebody? It's a similar situation.

That's what I was wondering. Would Otto now be like a man-eater and too dangerous to have on a farm, or will they just wash Tony's blood off his hooves and sell him off?

I don't think you can compare a dog to a bull

A dog is attacking and potentially deciding humans are a source of food.

The bull is reacting to stress and is defending itself surely. I don't think he has a taste for human blood now surely

A keeper was killed by an elephant at London zoo many years ago. The elephant wasn't punished for his misdemeanour as the problem was one of relative size. I would have thought it would be the same for a bull

Lillian, don't know to be honest - my dad's coming round in a bit, I'll ask him! (I'll say Mumsnet wants to know ....) He has farming acquaintances who have been gored by bulls, (not fatally) so imagine he knows.

As an aside, the fellow who we sell our beef-cross calves (mainly Angus, like Tony's) to is one of these - he was gored in his younger days. He insists that all bull calves he buys from us are castrated and dehorned for this reason.

It may be that when Health-and-Safety people come round to Bridge Farm to investigate the accident, they would insist that the bull be removed anyway. Whether it would have to be put down or sold, I really don't know.

On the BBC blog someone posted this comment on Friday:

Pip 15TH NOVEMBER 2014 - 6:24I've kept animals (large farm, and small domestic) all my life and I'm not remotely sentimental about livestock. I'm also fully aware of the fact that Otto is fictional. That said, if the SW's have the bull destroyed, it will be final proof—if any more were needed!—that they know little or nothing about country life.

I have no idea whether 'Pip' is genuine or not, but I thought of that comment tonight when they were talking about getting Otto off the farm as soon as possible!

Did they not say they were taking him/Otto to the abattoir tomorrow? Poor Otto, shouldn't it be Damien that suffers more? After all it was Damien who did the spooking of the animal.

(OK, Saturday, but the point still stands.)

I am now imaging farmers all over the country howling at the radio

I mean its one thing when they get non farming stories wrong (as I understand loxfest was totally unrealistic from an event organisers view) but if they can't even manage to make the farming stories realistic then maybe we are heading for the deading of the archers as a program

Although, johnny may feel sorry for otto because he knows how much tony lied him. He will liberate him in the night and there will be a huge story of a man-attacking bull on the loose in borchester

What happened after John's accident? Did Tony sell the Fergie tractor which overturned and killed John? I think he did. Obviously farm livestock is a bit different from farm equipment, but I should imagine farmers can't get too sentimental about the livestock or they couldn't send them to the abattoir. Would it be difficult to sell on a prize bull which was known to have trampled its previous owner? Maybe easier just to send him off to be slaughtered. Not his fault, of course, but the Bridge Farm cows mooing for their calves tonight have done nothing wrong either.

I loved the line from Peggy the nonagenarian ex-publican 'And watch that bull, he's clearly a very dangerous animal. It's possible she knows more about bulls than I do , but I guess it's not that likely. Should we start a 'save Otto' petition?

Sorry, forgot to close quotes. I CAN spell, honest, and my grammar's not bad really.

Well if they're willing to discuss the weather field one in parliament I can't see why saving otto shouldn't be on the agenda

They paid a lot of money for that bull. I can understand why they don't want him anymore but couldn't they recoup some of their money?

It's not like bulls aren't known for being aggressive

Hopefully a farmer can tell us how killer livestock are typically treated

The Fergie was kept in a shed/barn/ some kind of out-building for ages - then it was sold on. But I cannot recall the time-scale - there was talk of doing it while Tony and/or Pat were off the farm though. Tony felt particularly bad as it was his 'toy'. I'm having light-bulb moment and think in fact Pat asked David to oversee the sale so Tony didn't need to be there/be involved.

I know nothing about beef cattle but Otto is a valuable asset. Understandable that Pat wants him gone but they can't afford to just burgerise him. I don't believe that at all. Especially when he was (in cattle terms) provoked by a small child running towards him and his herd.

As a farmer (dairy & beef over 30 years experience) I wouldn't take the risk of buying a bull that had attacked it's previous owner... and I think that's probably a fairly typical attitude.

And if not sold at all, would you want to see the animal every day that had injured or killed your loved one? And could anyone on the farm ever trust it again?

So practically is there any real alternative to Ottoburgers?

I totally see why they want to have him put of their sight

I guess I don't see it as the bull attacking but more as him defending

If it's Ottoburgers, they need Tom back post haste - he can fire up the burger van, summon The Big Bapper back from London, and take the old show back on the road.

Just listened to tonight's episode with DH (a rare occurance, I can't convince him into being a fan). "Oh I had a farmer recently with a broken back, he'd been trampled by a bull too". He treated it differently though apparently.

Maybe Rob has never told them where Tom is.
He knows though........

Was your dh outraged at shoddy medical knowledge or was it ok Tall?