Aliens at work again- local crop circle cost?

[Red Fred]

The local hippies have been out again making a crop circle. Every would-be drone owning David Bailey has been out and plastered Faceboook with photos, and this has meant the arrival of even more weirdos to sit in the circle and soak up those earth forces, man. The farmer, obviously slightly miffed at all this, has now filmed himself taking out the circle with his combine although the rest of the field wasn't on his agenda for harvesting immediately. The straw wa also baled up wasting another hour driving there and baling in a circle.

These things have really peed me off ever since I was a tractor driver in Wiltshire 40 years ago, and many commenters are aware of the unwanted hassel for the owner of the crop, but an alarming number still think it is a harmless bit of fun and with no consequences.
What is the real cost nowadays? Potential loss of crop margin, corvid damage, waste of a combine hour erasing it, waste of a baler hour when not needed.rent on an acre....It might be handy to have a rough figure to quote to the crispy critters.
Or am I being a grumpy old killjoy remembering trying to pick up the laid crop with a Massey 400?

 

[Nearly]

Fence it off and sell tickets?
Cost between £500 and £1k?

Edit - cut out the middle alien and make your own in a thin bit or a patch of brome / blackgrass?

 

[Clive]

Fence it off and sell tickets?
Cost between £500 and £1k?

this ^

 

[serf]

cut out the middle alien

 

[Red Fred]

this ^

I could paint my private parts rainbow coloured, and make a lot of money in Bournemouth on a Saturday night, but I don't see why I should HAVE to, just because someone else decided to come and interfere with my property Aliens or not...

 

[cquick]

And we wonder why farmers are often seen as mean-spirited old gits

Take your opportunities as they come, lean into it and enjoy the free publicity for a potentially lucrative tourist attraction.

 

[Red Fred]

I would suggest our attitudes come down to the scale of our operation. We only ever grew 40 acres at most for our own feed, and I cut it with my prehistoric combine. Having an acre flattened, people jumping over fences and across the pastures is pretty annoying, especially in a year like this after all the hassel, whereas to someone with hundreds of acres of arable and modern kit, it wouldn't even register as a blip on the radar.
If the farmer is happy about it, then fine, but I don't agree with making assumptions about other peoples' businesses, intentions, or situation and just assuming it's OK because "you never see a farmer on a bike."

 

[Bald Rick]

I could paint my private parts rainbow coloured ....

7 colours ... must be a thin brush

 

[Red Fred]

7 colours ... must be a thin brush

I used to practice on my Action Man.

 

[2wheels]

I used to practice on my Action Man.

action man? i've got the inaction version.

 

[Bald Rick]

I used to practice on my Action Man.

If you're painting your Action Man rainbow, I think it's Action Them these days tbh

 

[suffolksmallholder]

I could paint my private parts rainbow coloured, and make a lot of money in Bournemouth on a Saturday night, but I don't see why I should HAVE to, just because someone else decided to come and interfere with my property Aliens or not...

That would be diversification in extremis!
SS

 

[Exfarmer]

I used to practice on my Action Man.

Action man must be getting a lot more realistic than it was in my day, would never have been able to satisfy Barbie, if she had been so equipped

 

[Hindsight]

I used to practice on my Action Man.

I practiced on my Sindy with the Humbrol paints from my Airfix. Think I may have invented the Brazilian without realising.