Farmers blamed for everything!

[dave78+]

There was some publicity concerning the River Wye recently where it had been implied that farmers had been responsible for the river pollution.

The River Wye has, for at least 5-years, been subjected to a lack of rain and snow and the intense heat of the Sun, none of which are the fault of any farmers farming on the lands adjacent to the river.

 

[Drakey]

I ignore all this farmer bashing now ,I just get on with it to my best ability until I’m told I can’t .
Two fingers too them all !

 

[7610 super q]

Meh. Quite clearly on a path towards self destruction. UK grows scrub on grade one land, meanwhile importing food from rain forest cleared ground.
Grow as much as I can in the garden, potter about producing black smoke from old Fords till retirement, and fudge everyone else.

 

[7610 super q]

Whilst not condoning agricultural pollution run off into the Wye, these farmers are producing cheap food for the nation. Can't have it both ways.

 

[bluebell]

The "total" lack of capacity, investment? in the sewage, infrustructure, for the "massive" increase of "existing" new housing, not alone, the future housing? is "plain to see"? We have it here in essex, we have a major sewer pipe running ajacent to the crouch river that borders and is under some grazing land, this was put in when we were children in the 1970s, the manholes we have 3 in the run, overflow with raw sewage, when we have heavy rainfall, all over the fields, then runs into the river, thats not including a sewage pumping station that discharges as well? this never happened 30 odd years ago? but then 30 odd years ago the population, number of houses were at least half as much?

 

[Frank-the-Wool]

The "total" lack of capacity, investment? in the sewage, infrustructure, for the "massive" increase of "existing" new housing, not alone, the future housing? is "plain to see"? We have it here in essex, we have a major sewer pipe running ajacent to the crouch river that borders and is under some grazing land, this was put in when we were children in the 1970s, the manholes we have 3 in the run, overflow with raw sewage, when we have heavy rainfall, all over the fields, then runs into the river, thats not including a sewage pumping station that discharges as well? this never happened 30 odd years ago? but then 30 odd years ago the population, number of houses were at least half as much?

There are instances of this all over the country. I fought an NVZ designation (mostly successfully) as all the high levels of nitrate and phosphate were downstream of the sewage outlets.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Just seen a farmer hauling muck an inch over his top line ,crazy fool
I told dad we should have emigrated

 

[DrWazzock]

And the annoying thing is that these private companies, be they water companies, electricity suppliers, or telecommunications companies now do nothing unless they receive government funding to upgrade infrastructure, despite charging us massively for these services.
My telecoms provider only brought fibre connection to the village with government funding. The electricity distribution network is waiting for government funding to upgrade the local MV network. I thought the idea was that private companies should invest their profits in infrastructure but apparently that’s an old fashioned idea.

 

[Bury the Trash]

There was some publicity concerning the River Wye recently where it had been implied that farmers had been responsible for the river pollution.

Its also been stated (yes maybe to a lessor degree ) publicly that its Welsh Water discharging sewage water via storm drains into the Wye and even so called properly treated water (that it is claimed to be so clean you could drink it ) is very high in Phosphate content.
Surely in this day and age that that could be removed in treatment process whether is "too expensive or complicated i don't know but anyway it just gets flushed into the waterways and this is excepted practice.

 

[Yale]

Its also been stated (yes maybe to a lessor degree ) publicly that its Welsh Water discharging sewage water via storm drains into the Wye and even so called properly treated water (that it is claimed to be so clean you could drink it ) is very high in Phosphate content.
Surely in this day and age that that could be removed in treatment process whether is "too expensive or complicated i don't know but anyway it just gets flushed into the waterways and this is excepted practice.

Welsh Water have paid dividends to shareholders over investing in infrastructure to prevent the pollution they have desperately been trying to hide. They are a disgrace and have brought huge areas of Wales to a standstill regarding development. This includes houses, businesses and farm buildings. They should be open to litigation and compensate farmers for stopping their businesses functioning. Welsh Water are the problem!

 

[dave78+]

The Wye water level seems to be low and that would enable to Sun to heat it up and de-oxygenated to the detriment of all the resident marine life. Fish need deep, cold water containing plenty of oxygen and foods. However, raw sewage is not the food that fish require. Incidentally, raw sewage usually contains a generous helping of fats, oils, soaps and other chemicals flushed down toilets. The impact upon the Wye by farm fertilizers is low.

 

[Jimdog1]

Just seen a farmer hauling muck an inch over his top line ,crazy fool
I told dad we should have emigrated

Never too late Derrick!

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Never too late Derrick!

My destiny is now to ride my time out on a push bike, not on the Great Plains on Horseback ,but we can dream what could have been

 

[nails]

There was some publicity concerning the River Wye recently where it had been implied that farmers had been responsible for the river pollution.

The River Wye has, for at least 5-years, been subjected to a lack of rain and snow and the intense heat of the Sun, none of which are the fault of any farmers farming on the lands adjacent to the river.

Yes the weather has been more extreme and water companies are the biggest pollution culprit but there is no getting away from the fact that excess Nitrates and Phosphates are getting into watercourses from Agricultural sources. No one is implying farmers are the sole cause but you have to accept farming practice in the last 40-50 years has not helped

 

[nails]

The Wye water level seems to be low and that would enable to Sun to heat it up and de-oxygenated to the detriment of all the resident marine life. Fish need deep, cold water containing plenty of oxygen and foods. However, raw sewage is not the food that fish require. Incidentally, raw sewage usually contains a generous helping of fats, oils, soaps and other chemicals flushed down toilets. The impact upon the Wye by farm fertilizers is low.

So you say but but if a river is running low spreading fertiliser , slurry, dung at a time when it could be immediately washed into the river is not going to help is it?

 

[nails]

Its also been stated (yes maybe to a lessor degree ) publicly that its Welsh Water discharging sewage water via storm drains into the Wye and even so called properly treated water (that it is claimed to be so clean you could drink it ) is very high in Phosphate content.
Surely in this day and age that that could be removed in treatment process whether is "too expensive or complicated i don't know but anyway it just gets flushed into the waterways and this is excepted practice.

Yes it is true that the water companies release un treated sewage ito the river because it is cheaper than treating it but i still know that modern Agriculture has also put more strain on water quality in many rivers.

 

[betweenthelines]

Farmers always get the blame? Yes, but quite often it's because they are too helpful and put themselves on the defensive.

You don't have to look too far through TFF to see examples of this, things like:

Locals complain about a farmer working late and making a noise. Member of the public complains direct to the farmer about a percieved noise issue, so farmer enters into a debate with complainant. Whereas any big business would say "Please write to our Complaints Dept and you will recieve a response within 28 days"

Someone wants to put a water pipe or suchlike across a field-farmer may not be too happy with this, but does discuss the request. But Tesco etc would just say NO-end of discussion.

I think this is summed up by the Looking for metal detecting/free vermin control crowd. If you just say "No, not here" they start asking "Why not" "We won't do any harm" etc etc. agruing as if they have a Right to permission.

How many "Officials" and members of the public turn up in a farmyard uninvited and expect -and recieve- an immediate response? The classic for this must be anyone dealing with H&S-would they expect to just walk into a factory without an appointment (or even with one) and wander about without "signing in"

All these means the public is conditioned to expect farmers to be on the defensive and accept the blame for whatever they (the public) don't like.

 

[Radio]

Up till the seventies our cattle were all watered in the brook. Untied from the cowsheds and drank their fill and then promptly mucked in the water. This would have taken place on most farms as it had for hundreds of years. Didn’t seem to be any mention of pollution then from livestock. The dipping tubs built by Birmingham corporation in the Elan Valley for the tenants, where all right next to the streams , that flowed into the dams. Different times.