Commoner cattle causing damage

[primmiemoo]

If it was me I would ask the farmer if I could borrow an electric fencer & a short piece of fencing wire, one good shock from the fencer & the cow will disappear quickly! Once shocked it will not touch the chain again.

Given it's an area with the public around, some advisory signage might be a zenzible addition if that's decided upon.

 

[Ffermer Bach]

If it was me I would ask the farmer if I could borrow an electric fencer & a short piece of fencing wire, one good shock from the fencer & the cow will disappear quickly! Once shocked it will not touch the chain again.

yes, I think that is the answer, my cattle will not go near the electric fence, even when I peg it to the ground to get them to move paddocks I can't get them to step over it, electric fencing gate instead of the chain for a a few days with an energiser would surely do the trick. I bet the farmer would have one you could borrow

VOSS.farming Gate Handle Set with Elastic Rope, 3.2m/ 5.2m, Electric Fence

<ul class="checklist"> <li>incl. "Jumbo" ring insulator and 2 rotatable gate handle insulator for easy installation</li> <li>used as a safe access point to your electric fence enclosure or paddock</li> <li>ideal for horses and</li></ul>…

www.electric-fence.co.uk

something like this

 

[Grassman]

Sliding electric gate may be suitable?

 

[Grassman]

Nothing stopping you fitting a gate to the bottom of a driveway with a rising slope

Rising Field Gate Hinge Set

Lifts the gate as it opens, perfect for sloping or uneven ground Suitable for our wooden field gates Heavy duty galvanised finish for a long life

mcveighparker.com

A good fencer/gatefitter will either use a standard lifting hinge kit or make one suitable for a specific gateway

 

[egbert]

As @BrianV says, it's down to you maintaining a boundary against the common.
(I say this for some others benefit, as you evidently know the deal)
It's a very touchy subject, as plenty of commoners have quit grazing due to non-farmer pressure about such things.

There are exceptions to the liability, with precedence, but I don't think this is one.

The leccy fencer trick is most likely your friend here...educate that one cow. As said, the farmer might even help out.
Good luck to you...not every householder is as balanced in their view.

(Is @BrianV the fella due to come and look at my yearlings dreckly?)

 

[melted welly]

I’m hoping to get some advice please. I live on a property that adjoins common land and the local farmer grazes their cattle on it. I have no issues with this at all, I love where I live. Recently though there is one new cow that loves our garden - twice breaking the chain pit across the driveway to stop them getting in. We can’t put gates up as the driveway is on a slope and exits onto a roadway, and can’t install a cattle grid as water meters are in the way. This new cow has now broken another chain and done hundreds of pounds of damage to newly planted roses and peonies (when it happened there was also a van across the driveway). Do I have any grounds to request some recompense from the farmer? I don’t want to fall out as I appreciate the history of commoners grazing their cattle but it’s costing me a fortune in chains and plants and I can’t see how it can get any better. Sorry for the long post - thought it best to say it all in one instead of generating lots of questions! Thanks

Give this guy a shout, has some novel ideas on keeping unwanted animals off his property.

I’m no livestock farmer, but can’t see why something similar wouldn’t work on cattle.

 

[BrianV]

As @BrianV says, it's down to you maintaining a boundary against the common.
(I say this for some others benefit, as you evidently know the deal)
It's a very touchy subject, as plenty of commoners have quit grazing due to non-farmer pressure about such things.

There are exceptions to the liability, with precedence, but I don't think this is one.

The leccy fencer trick is most likely your friend here...educate that one cow. As said, the farmer might even help out.
Good luck to you...not every householder is as balanced in their view.

(Is @BrianV the fella due to come and look at my yearlings dreckly?)

Afraid not!

 

[muppet]

Definately think a strand or two of electric would work best. Energisers aren’t as expensive as they used to be.

How wide is your drive entrance? Maybe a couple of slip rails would work if you don’t want to go down the electric route

 

[egbert]

Afraid not!

ne'er mind...different Brian then!

 

[delilah]

ne'er mind...different Brian then!

 

[texelburger]

I remember, many years ago,about 35 fattening bullocks breaking out of a cattle shed at around 4 in the morning. We heard the commotion, quickly got dressed,and ran outside to gather them up.We couldn't find them anywhere but as it gradually got lighter we could follow where they had gone and to my horror they had turned into the garden of this huge house with 7 acres of garden which was open to the public.
There was carnage as it had been quite wet the previous days and the cattle had decimated one 2 acre lawn which had been turned into something resembling the Somme.Luckily they had spotted some cows and calves in a neighbouring field behind a tall hedge and were stood ,quietly, by them.This had stopped them from moving on through the garden to the flower beds,herbaceous borders and vegetable garden.
We slowly coaxed them home and I then went to see the owner an American lady who I knew fairly well as we had been to school together.The lawn looked even worse as I drove up the long drive to the house.The lady came out to greet me and I burst out apologising and offering to pay for all the remedial work to reinstate the lawn.She replied "Don't worry it's my fault for not having the garden secure and I should of had the drive gate closed.I couldn't believe how reasonable she was and still offered to do the work but she said no it was her fault and the gardeners would see to it.
I still have nightmares seeing that lawn.

 

[zero]

Neighbour down the road has a drive that rises up steeply from the road. He put two 5 foot gates on. He set the posts 6 foot up his drive so the gates can open out over without obstructing the road.

 

[Doc]

I would approach it as a ‘shared’ problem starting off as an observation about the one cow rather than any accusatory meaning. I would then discuss the solution ( which you already have above ⚡️). If he thinks it is his idea, he will be determined to make it work.

 

[Dry Rot]

Have a Google for "drive through gates". There are electric ones with a couple of carbon fibre rods that meet in the middle you can just drive through. Getting out to tale down a bungy gate would soon get a bit tedious, especially in the rain. I did find a clever one that work on gravity with water being used to re-close the gate after a delay and tyre pressure to open it, but I lost the link. The problem with most drive throughs is that the car has to make contact with those electrified rods that form the barrier and that could possibly scratch a car.

 

[steveR]

Neighbour down the road has a drive that rises up steeply from the road. He put two 5 foot gates on. He set the posts 6 foot up his drive so the gates can open out over without obstructing the road.

Unusual to see such sense...

 

[steveR]

Have a Google for "drive through gates". There are electric ones with a couple of carbon fibre rods that meet in the middle you can just drive through. Getting out to tale down a bungy gate would soon get a bit tedious, especially in the rain. I did find a clever one that work on gravity with water being used to re-close the gate after a delay and tyre pressure to open it, but I lost the link. The problem with most drive throughs is that the car has to make contact with those electrified rods that form the barrier and that could possibly scratch a car.

I was trail riding in N Spain and saw one hell of a lot of these on the stoned tracks with leccy fences. Usually with a warning sign that had fallen over... Some had a soft tip end, but they majority had lost them!

There are plenty of drive over gates and barriers about I have seen, usually in US or Oz, but I do recall one where the weight of the wheels on a bar or plate, dropped the drive over gate down, as opposed to the bump type which are of little use with a modern car... No bumper!

 

[CopperBeech]

It’s ok, at least it was a bit of tongue in cheek and not patronising like I’ve seen on this forum before sadly - most people have been helpful so thank you

I don’t mean this in a bad way, but I thinkoften the patronising ‘tone’ can come from the fact that the countryside is a place of business for most of us, as well as our home.

So often there are folk who’s issue seems to stem from the fact that by living in the middle of someone else’s buisness premises or wishing to take part in leisure activities in / on said premises, they wish to tell / make the farmer not to / to do something.

It’s bloody annoying that the cow is pushing into your garden, but really you’ve just been lucky it hasn’t been an issue so far, other than in the name of being a good neighbour, it isn’t really the cattle keepers issue. Same as when folk want to walk foot paths and get intimidated by scary gangs of steers or cows with calves. The footpaths were to get folk to work across private owned ground, usually country folk who could handle a cow or read one at least. Now folk ‘demand’ their ‘right’ to wander across someone’s place of business and because they may want to use that meter wide strip across the field at whatever moment they choose, the farmer gets his actions restricted (ie can’t put certain stock in the field).

End of the day you live in / by a common grazing block and enjoy the benefits I assume, and so have to take the rough with the smooth. I hope you find a suitable solution, and I think that would be a gate on a slope hinge, because ultimately if the cow is pushing the chain, breaking it and getting into your garden it’s not really the farmers problem.

Same as if someone was walking in one of our fields with a loose dog and the cows trampled and killed it, again it wouldn’t be the farmers problem (or shouldn’t be).

So often we are kind of seen as just a part of the scenery and there to make the countryside look pretty, when actually most of us are balls deep in deb, stressed to hell, trying to make a living from feeding folk who are obsessed that we are trying to kill them / destroy their planet

 

[Y Fan Wen]

Regarding responsibility for common boundaries;
If you have a boundary with a common and have rights on that common, you are responsible for the maintenance of your boundary. This applies whether you exercise your rights or not.
If you have a boundary with a common and no rights of common, then the commoners are responsible for maintaining your boundary.
It is necessary to examine deeds to be sure that you have rights or no rights, not just grazing but rights of, estovers, turbary, piscary, pannage etc.. There is also a right to take stone for building and road making but I can't find the term for that at the moment.

 

[BrianV]

Regarding responsibility for common boundaries;
If you have a boundary with a common and have rights on that common, you are responsible for the maintenance of your boundary. This applies whether you exercise your rights or not.
If you have a boundary with a common and no rights of common, then the commoners are responsible for maintaining your boundary.
It is necessary to examine deeds to be sure that you have rights or no rights, not just grazing but rights of, estovers, turbary, piscary, pannage etc.. There is also a right to take stone for building and road making but I can't find the term for that at the moment.

I find it very difficult to believe you are not responsible for your properties boundary if you have no rights of any kind, as in the case in question if you have an entrance onto the common through a gateway it is your responsibility to keep it closed

 

[penntor]

If you have a boundary with a common and no rights of common, then the commoners are responsible for maintaining your boundary.

Never heard of this before, always heard that you had to maintain a boundary against a common.