Cockatoos eat the fruit which the human fruit pickers should be picking so then the farmers are not harvesting the crops which they have nurtured all season and then they are not making the profit from farming that they should be given the time, energy, money and resources they have invested. A waste of time and effort if there is no harvest at the end of it. A lot of the fruit pickers here in Oz tend to be backpackers. It all fits in with the definition of a cocky farmer.

As Bob Bolton said on 24 Jun 01 - 03:33 AM:

"In its original sense, Cocky Farmer was a small farmer, either (according to version) growing or feeding cockies (cockatoos) - not a crop. Today the term can embrace farmers on large holdings - and be a sheep cocky or a cow cocky - but it always has a sense of not being a rich pastoralist. Eric's cocky has always been a battler."