Jeremy Vine on radio 2 - Lockdown walkers causing crop damage discussion

[Drillman]

What’s the going rate for a hit man nowadays and where would you find one?

Asking for a friend and all that.

I was gonna stick an ad in classifieds! Lots of farmer diversification nowadays so will find something I’m sure

 

[Stuart J]

What's wrong with fencing off footpaths, so walkers don't stray?

 

[Daddy Pig]

I can’t believe it either,
Yes, I know they do it but why !!!

because its much more fun than riding on the road and without the risk of been mown down by a car.

 

[Daddy Pig]

is an E mountain bike a usable farm tool, son is looking for a new bike and now im just considering if i could use one of these for checking cattle and crops, and it being a business tool?@johnnyboxer

yes its a brilliant farm tool, without doubt the best thing i have ever bought.

 

[Dalos]

yes its a brilliant farm tool, without doubt the best thing i have ever bought.

did you manage to buy it through the business with that in mind,

 

[Tarw Coch]

because its much more fun than riding on the road and without the risk of been mown down by a car.

You and me have a different idea of fun

 

[Simon Chiles]

what's the solution ?

In my opinion its Education and not Confrontation


get some (friendly) signs up, Im sure people walking on my wheat have no idea that they are damaging a crop, they probably just think its grass and that's fine to walk on right ??

shouting at people rarely works, teaching them something new is often appreciated however

off course there will always be the idiots that do not care and will never learn etc but we just have to accept that, there is nothing we can do, you can not reason with unreasonable people !

This is more or less exactly how I deal with it. I spend hours educating people about our farming and generally it works very well. Occasionally I get the odd one standing in the middle of a crop who tells me about their right to roam. My stock answer is to tell them that it’s just as private as their garden and also tell them how much crop we loose each year to public damage, they often come around quickly to my way of thinking. Very rarely I have one that’s desperate for a fight, I tell them that if they’re prepared to wait a bit I can soon sort that out for them, they rapidly disappear, maybe they’ve seen him doing squat thrusts with a bale pack on his back when he’s bored.
I did catch one of the locals ( has an agenda to make a footpath around every field ) walking around where there wasn’t a footpath. When I said that there wasn’t one his answer ( fairly predictably) was that he’d been using it for years. I pointed out that it was criminal damage and I could prove my loss each year on my yield maps, again he quickly changed his tune and I haven’t seen him, or traces of anyone around that field since.
We tolerate people walking around some of our fields where there isn’t a footpath and I find it helps to say to them that if damage gets out of hand we’ll have to stop all of them which will spoil it for the majority. I find this approach tends to lead to them policing it for me.

 

[Oat]

What's wrong with fencing off footpaths, so walkers don't stray?

There is a field near me where the farmer has put up signs at the footpath entrance from the road saying that legally he has to allow a 1m wide footpath across the middle of the following fields. He has therefore fenced a 1m wide alleyway with two rows of wooden posts every 10 metres with tape fastened on at about a 4 foot height. The fields in question are quite long and thin with the footpath going across the middle of the shortest sides, but even so it must be a bit of a hassle putting it all up

 

[Stuart J]

There is a field near me where the farmer has put up signs at the footpath entrance from the road saying that legally he has to allow a 1m wide footpath across the middle of the following fields. He has therefore fenced a 1m wide alleyway with two rows of wooden posts every 10 metres with tape fastened on at about a 4 foot height. The fields in question are quite long and thin with the footpath going across the middle of the shortest sides, but even so it must be a bit of a hassle putting it all up

Would it be a major issue to fence it off permanently? Just put up with having 2 fields where there may have been one?

 

[Oat]

Would it be a major issue to fence it off permanently? Just put up with having 2 fields where there may have been one?

The fields are already quite small (albeit long and thin), and the footpaths go right across the middle. Normally, they are cropped with arable crops, but personally I would consider putting them into grass, as both fields are on the side of a hill, with the long sides going across the slope; so they aren't the most safe to navigate (although probably safer than going up and down), and all the water from the road drains down the fields in the winter, and in the summer they dry out, meaning the crops often aren't the best.

 

[Sid]

The ramblers are pushing for every pathetic ever used to become a public footpath.
Wonder if they will bring up the ones through the middle of new housing estates ?

 

[Ramrod]

There is a field near me where the farmer has put up signs at the footpath entrance from the road saying that legally he has to allow a 1m wide footpath across the middle of the following fields. He has therefore fenced a 1m wide alleyway with two rows of wooden posts every 10 metres with tape fastened on at about a 4 foot height. The fields in question are quite long and thin with the footpath going across the middle of the shortest sides, but even so it must be a bit of a hassle putting it all up

Are the signs working??