I'm getting a bit afraid now ............

[steveR]

View attachment 989560

Not sure I'd get my more "traditionally sized" tractors over these barriers either!

 

[davidroberts30]

Which is best, high tensile or standard, 2 strand of 3??

Electric?

 

[shumungus]

I f it was me I would go and see the local travellers, ask for the top man and have a chat. I am not from traveller heritage nor do I have any link to them but I have had interaction and dealings with them. In my opinion if you show them the same level of courtesy and respect that you would expect yourself you will get on all right. Just don't go in wanting conflict or you will get it. If you can get a local 'head' on your side his word will be bankable and will be obeyed by all. Even if it means showing them where some of your stubble ground is to exercise their dogs as a trade off. Underneath it all they are old fashioned and actually honourable in their own way and yes rough around the edges.

 

[HatsOff]

We’ve never had much trouble touch wood , but the last couple of weeks there’s been folks driving over most farms locally , over drilled crops and stubble turnips etc. Locked our gates now as they’d been left open for muck spreading etc.
Early hours Monday morning they got stuck in a rut on neighbours field and abandoned ship . View attachment 989500View attachment 989502

I don't know how recent this was but I just put that VRN onto the MOT checker and it expired on the 5th! That would give plod an easy box tick.

https://www.check-mot.service.gov.uk/

 

[Uggman]

All quiet at the moment. We have got on well with the locals in the past, I even went and pulled out a caravan with the tractor once for them and we cut the hedge round their little area every year and Mrs. comes out and pays for it. The children went to the primary school long enough to read, write and add up although big sister was always at the gate to hurry the small ones away.

So it might be visitors or even people from the town. We know they have been riding round in the fields for years as we can see the tracks. And we mutter about it but never done much to stop it. However, letting 40 cattle out was too much, and then the broken locks and then the following night coming up the field right next to the house.

Needless to say, the Police haven't been even though one was supposed to, but it is logged on the system.
So many logs in gateways now and keep our fingers crossed things don't get nasty.

Dad has had alot of dealings with them he has always said they will respect you more if you that your problems to them rather then the police.

 

[Aspiring Peasants]

You can watch drug dealers at work from the barber shop in town while having a haircut. Why oh why can't the police do this? Why are they so chronically unimaginative and unenthusiastic in their approach to solving crime? I honestly think they just aren't interested in cleaning the place up. Car boot sales again would net a significant haul of miscreants as would a proper investigation of ebay. Where are the VAT receipts for starters? Truth is the powers that be aren't interested. They see such losses to ordinary folk as a price worth paying, to be picked up by our insurance premiums rather than actually getting off their arses and doing something proactive. A bit like the NHS the Police have become a kind of self serving institution. It's all about pensions and early retirement now and a few easy pickings for the speed camera van.

I've got to dispute this. There was a bit of muck fell off a trailer on the outskirts of our town. There were three policemen there in a very short space of time and the driver got fined several hundred pounds.

Cracking down on rural crime

 

[PSQ]

I f it was me I would go and see the local travellers, ask for the top man and have a chat. I am not from traveller heritage nor do I have any link to them but I have had interaction and dealings with them. In my opinion if you show them the same level of courtesy and respect that you would expect yourself you will get on all right. Just don't go in wanting conflict or you will get it. If you can get a local 'head' on your side his word will be bankable and will be obeyed by all. Even if it means showing them where some of your stubble ground is to exercise their dogs as a trade off. Underneath it all they are old fashioned and actually honourable in their own way and yes rough around the edges.

Do that and you’ll be a victim for ever more:
“For £1000 I’m sure the boys could be persuaded to do a bit of ‘security work’ for you. Cash only, and have the money ready every September…”

 

[shumungus]

Do that and you’ll be a victim for ever more:
“For £1000 I’m sure the boys could be persuaded to do a bit ‘security work’ for you. Cash only, and have the money ready every September…”

What are you basing this on? Have you had this happen to you? Have you ever dealt with them?

 

[PSQ]

What are you basing this on? Have you had this happen to you? Have you ever dealt with them?

I’ve ‘dealt with’ about 30+ hare coursers over the years. You can forget any quaint notions of ‘honour’ or mutual respect, the OP will be played like a deck of cards.

 

[shumungus]

Have to say I disagree with you on this one. The fact that you have had to 'deal' with 30+ hare coursers over the years maybe shows your approach didn't work that well.

 

[PSQ]

Have to say I disagree with you on this one. The fact that you have had to 'deal' with 30+ hare coursers over the years maybe shows your approach didn't work that well.

I don’t care if you agree. We haven’t had a ‘visit’ in 2 years, unlike my neighbours. There is a way that works, and it isn’t ‘appeasement’ or laying yourself open to extortion or ‘protection’.

 

[shumungus]

I don’t care if you agree. We haven’t had a ‘visit’ in 2 years, unlike my neighbours. There is a way that works, and it isn’t ‘appeasement’ or laying yourself open to extortion or ‘protection’.

I can't see any drawbacks to at least trying to have a discussion with the local travellers, as has been said on this thread the locals up to now have been amicable and they if so inclined would have the power to stop it.

 

[shumungus]

Also, it sort of gives away your attitude to the whole situation when you are comparing travellers to Nazi's.

 

[PSQ]

Also, it sort of gives away your attitude to the whole situation when you are comparing travellers to Nazi's.

Let me guess. You're 'offended' at my lack of woke acceptance, that hare coursers have the human right to treat farmers like utter shite without any repercussions?
I'm not going to get drawn into an online slanging match, so 'you do you', and see where it takes you.

 

[Ffermer Bach]

How is it malicious if I’ve left an implement in the field?!

I remember being told on a health and safety course, about a factory, where children broke in, started riding round on the forklifts and had an accident. The owner was guilty, because they left the keys in the ignition (in the locked factory!), so, I think the law says we have a duty of care even to trespassers !

 

[DrWazzock]

If they come round doing jobs or looking for scrap I’ll take time to have a chat but I won’t negotiate with them. That’s a downward spiral to a protection racket. I’ll emphasise I’m a small business that can’t afford losses and damage. The older generation aren’t so bad but they themselves say things have wrong with the younger ones. But actually in this neck of the woods it isn’t travellers who are hare coursing from what I’ve seen. It’s feral sink estate residents that social services are so fond of exporting to this area. The export of problem families from inner city areas has likely cost us us hundreds of thousands locally in not a million or two never mind the benefits they live on. Oh well.

 

[shumungus]

Nope, not offended at all, I am many things but I am definitely not of the 'woke' brigade just trying to be devils advocate and offer a different perspective.
Three things help me form my opinion.
1. I live in NI and see how pointless conflict and its repercussions are.
2. I have had good dealings with travellers.
3. Coming from NI and speaking with what the majority of mainland Britain perceives as an 'Irish accent' I have many times watched mainland peoples attitude change towards me as soon as they hear me speak and its never for the better. Not the first time I have been called a pikey and told to f**k off before I got the chance to explain I too am an impoverished house dwelling farmer looking for a certain farmers yard where I was to meet them to view livestock or machinery. I know I am ticking the boxes to these people with my accent, casual dress and driving a 4x4 or van but it shows that a lot of people do get off on the wrong foot. Suppose its better than the south of England middle class city dwelling people we meet on family holidays in Spain, with our accents and my first name they just think I am a terrorist.
So yes @PSQ I'll 'do me' and 'you do you' and we'll be none the worse for it. Just trying to offer another option.

 

[David.]

I'll just say I tend to get on better with the tinkers if I speak to them civilly and chuck them an old car battery, than if I meet them at the gate with an iron bar over my shoulder.

 

[MRT]

Suppose its better than the south of England middle class city dwelling people we meet on family holidays in Spain, with our accents and my first name they just think I am a terrorist.
So yes @PSQ I'll 'do me' and 'you do you' and we'll be none the worse for it. Just trying to offer another option.

Osama Shumungus is an unusual name though

 

[teslacoils]

And if you phone the police they always have to "come from Gainsborough". Why aren't they out an about at night patrolling? What good is it sat in fudgin Gainsborough?

For what's it's worth, the last two times we have confronted folk on our fields, and the resultant car chases, we got coppers here within minutes *because it was a road related issues* (dangerous driving) whereas if it was just poaching they'd not even bother.

So play your cards. A stick from a long way away looks a lot like a fun. So say you think they might be armed. One of them told you to "f off" but actually I'm pretty sure they called me a homophobic slur.

Plod don't need more resources - they just need you to make it easy. Dashcams at all times. Get a list of all the things that are crimes. Ring this stuff in on 999 as 101 is complete waste of time.