New farm roads and field stones

[AngusR79]

Hello - new to the forum here but have been lurking on the sidelines and scavenging great solutions froyou lot for a while now!!

I’m trying to bring a neglected hill farm back into use in central Scotland and starting at the bottom with infrastructure. I need roads to get across the farm without making a complete mess. At the same time I have a lot of old collapsed dykes and field stones to remove. Is it worth getting a crusher in and crushing this as bottoming for the road ways or does field stone crush too much to dust? Have tried to find borrow pits but not much luck and the cost of bringing stone in would be eye watering with the volumes I’ll need - probably 2 miles of tracks at least. Would screened crushed field stone also work around land drainage pipes for field drainage? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks

Angus

 

[Doing it for the kids]

Farm tracks cost a lot, last lot we did was about £30 / lm.

depends what you will be using the track for and how long your game plan is.

work out costs to crush vs value and volume of finished product. Recycled stone is getting harder to find down here, I need a lot year but can’t find any at sensible money now

 

[Farmer Fin]

Be careful with collapsed dykes and removing them especially if you claim SFP. They will heavily penalise you for removing them and it’s easy to see through satellite pics.

 

[Sharpy]

Is your ground stoney? If so what about ploughing, then stone harvesting before reseeding?

 

[Sharpy]

As to the rest of your questions the answer is how good is your stone.

 

[milton-95]

Crushed dyke stone makes good crusher run for road making , but the Stone has to be clean from topsoil, use a riddle bucket when removing the dykes and also make sure who ever you get to crush the Stone has a grizzly and side belt on the crusher to remove any remaining topsoil

 

[Chae1]

Do you own have you bought farm?

A chap bought a farm in this area and during transfer of ownership he ripped out all the dykes and crushed them. Must be a grey area somewhere.

He's a builder by trade so not relying entirely on ag and subsidies for his business.

I think its a good idea to use them for tracks etc.

 

[AngusR79]

The old dykes seem to pass through the middle of field parcels and are really just the base stones from old walls so I don’t think they would affect sfp - but yes, good point, definitely worth checking.

I’ll look through the cost of a crusher Vs bought in costs. I would likely just hire in a Kirby crusher or similar. It seems to make sense though to avoid double handling stones.

Also a good idea on the ploughing front. Fields need ploughed and reseeded anyway so would be worth taking a stone harvest. And yes - they will be stoney....... just need to find a contractor with a heavy duty plough!!

 

[Sharpy]

The old dykes seem to pass through the middle of field parcels and are really just the base stones from old walls so I don’t think they would affect sfp - but yes, good point, definitely worth checking.

I’ll look through the cost of a crusher Vs bought in costs. I would likely just hire in a Kirby crusher or similar. It seems to make sense though to avoid double handling stones.

Also a good idea on the ploughing front. Fields need ploughed and reseeded anyway so would be worth taking a stone harvest. And yes - they will be stoney....... just need to find a contractor with a heavy duty plough!!

Where roughly are you? Pm if you prefer.

 

[mezz]

Hello - new to the forum here but have been lurking on the sidelines and scavenging great solutions froyou lot for a while now!!

I’m trying to bring a neglected hill farm back into use in central Scotland and starting at the bottom with infrastructure. I need roads to get across the farm without making a complete mess. At the same time I have a lot of old collapsed dykes and field stones to remove. Is it worth getting a crusher in and crushing this as bottoming for the road ways or does field stone crush too much to dust? Have tried to find borrow pits but not much luck and the cost of bringing stone in would be eye watering with the volumes I’ll need - probably 2 miles of tracks at least. Would screened crushed field stone also work around land drainage pipes for field drainage? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks

Angus

Think you'd want good access to get a crusher in as heavy. Also ideally a few thousand ton to crush, to make it worthwhile. Big difference in cost depending on hardness of rock.

 

[puppet]

Be careful with 2 miles of new tracks. There could be planning issues if very visible. Costs a lot to put them back. Your old dykes could be seen as a haven for wildlife and possibly neighbourly advice if removed.
You are in Scotland -scrape the surface and there will be rock

 

[quattro]

If you have stone dykes you should be able to dig a hole somewhere to make a quarry which your allowed so much a year for your own use

 

[vantage]

@Forage Trader has harvested stones.

 

[Tarw Coch]

Wasn’t there a case in Scotland a year or two back made the headlines where someone had removed several miles of stone walls off a farm?
Can’t remembee what came of it but I’m sure it was discussed on here.

 

[Farmer Fin]

Wasn’t there a case in Scotland a year or two back made the headlines where someone had removed several miles of stone walls off a farm?
Can’t remembee what came of it but I’m sure it was discussed on here.

Yep, can’t remember where he was but he got a big penalty hence my initial post. Best thing was it was a neighbouring farmer that reported him.

 

[Happy]

Wasn’t there a case in Scotland a year or two back made the headlines where someone had removed several miles of stone walls off a farm?
Can’t remembee what came of it but I’m sure it was discussed on here.

That was last year in Fife.
From memory I think he was fined 75% of his single farm payment.

 

[quattro]

Yep, can’t remember where he was but he got a big penalty hence my initial post. Best thing was it was a neighbouring farmer that reported him.

Why should you get fined,there’s no preservation order on them,know plenty of people who’s let cattle knock them down into a mess they never get penalties
most folk who take them down is for making fields a better shape etc

 

[Farmer Fin]

Why should you get fined,there’s no preservation order on them,know plenty of people who’s let cattle knock them down into a mess they never get penalties
most folk who take them down is for making fields a better shape etc

GAEC 7 - retention of landscape feature. I don’t make the rules.

 

[AndrewB]

We collected the stones and crushed them to make a road for a wind turbine a few years ago, saved buying as much stone and cleared a couple of fields.

 

[jre]

That was last year in Fife.
From memory I think he was fined 75% of his single farm payment.

Thats correct.
Unfortunately he did most of in fields next to a busy main road and in full view of the neighbouring village!