Should I say this

[nelly55]

Once again we hear on the news the terrible situation over homes and businesses in built up areas flooded,the news goes on and on how lives are put on hold.Am I mean in thinking why the hell farms get no mention over land flooded.Yes we haven’t lost what they have lost but,yes our lives are on hold.Many will be like me unable to drill,culling cows as no grazing ,no income for 12 months.The 2 situations are totally different and flooded land is nothing like the heart break of your house.But I wish the EA and IDB would accept this is our shop floor and means just as much in its own way to us.

 

[Zippy768]

I think you are being a little mean. You are a farmer and farming has and will always be dictated by weather through every season. Simply by being in this industry you are gambling your potential income on factors beyond your control - nothing new.

I can only imagine the heartache of having your home flooded and the dread some of these people must feel in low lying areas when another "Weather Warning for Rain" arrives.

 

[jellybean]

I have sympathy for people whose houses get flooded, my son is one of them. However many of these houses would never have been bought by a farmer in the first place because generally we have enough common sense to look around at the surrounding land and water courses and assess the risk. I suppose it is unfair to expect the average house buyer to have those skills and in many ways they would be relying on their surveyors when contemplating a purchase but we all know that competency in that area varies tremendously. A friend of my wife was looking at a new build house to buy. She has a friend who is a surveyor who took a look at the house for her, went and had look in the roof space and told her to walk away, it wasn't safe and he doubted it would last out the 10 year warranty. So all sorts of potential problems to buying a house and ultimately we have to rely on our own judgement.

 

[Sid]

When I bought a property the solicitor said it has a 1 in 50 year chance of flooding. It's on top of a hill and very very unlikely.
So I asked when it flooded last so I could gauge in how many years to expect it to flood.
No idea was the reply, so completely pointless imho!

 

[egbert]

I note that, whether it's farmland, and often with flooded houses, the pictures usually show wide expanses of flat land under water.
There's a hint there....
And where houses flood because 'the bridge can't take it', or some culvert can't cope, you'll often find that the locals knew not to buy those cottages beside yon brook, 'cuz the beggars flood when it pi55es down'.
I am.of course, sympathetic to those who're suffering...it must be horrible. I merely get wet doing what I've got to do, and come back in out of it again.
(missing a cow from a feeder this morning...I know she can't be calving, but gonna have to go looking in a bit)

 

[primmiemoo]

I feel sorry for people in old settlements whose homes are flooding because they were built in a manmade landscape with manmade drainage systems - some hundreds of years old - that are no longer being maintained by The Powers that Be to provide good drainage for those settlements.

 

[manhill]

I note that, whether it's farmland, and often with flooded houses, the pictures usually show wide expanses of flat land under water.
There's a hint there....
And where houses flood because 'the bridge can't take it', or some culvert can't cope, you'll often find that the locals knew not to buy those cottages beside yon brook, 'cuz the beggars flood when it pi55es down'.
I am.of course, sympathetic to those who're suffering...it must be horrible. I merely get wet doing what I've got to do, and come back in out of it again.
(missing a cow from a feeder this morning...I know she can't be calving, but gonna have to go looking in a bit)

good luck with the cow

 

[nelly55]

I didn’t intend to give the impression of been mean ,having been flooded myself it’s horrible things you can’t just Simply replace .But each time I see a planning application and a desk top exercise is done on drainage someone is going to end up in a nightmare situation.I feel this continual building of defences and moving the problem on to someone else’s doorstep has to stop.Does Holland have all these problems considering it’s below sea level.Yes farmland has always flooded but its now at the stage where even it can’t take anymore.

 

[vantage]

When I bought a property the solicitor said it has a 1 in 50 year chance of flooding. It's on top of a hill and very very unlikely.
So I asked when it flooded last so I could gauge in how many years to expect it to flood.
No idea was the reply, so completely pointless imho!

If our place floods , most of rest of the country better be in an ark, we’re 800’ up on the side of a hill!

 

[ajd132]

Personally I thought the guy from Lincolnshire who made a big fuss about his farm being flooded was slightly ridiculous. The pictures on the news showed the farm being below the level of the river bank!
He should send a bill to the council for water storage.
Also aren’t the Somerset levels a natural flood plain?
Farmers farming on flood plains moaning whilst equally calling people idiots for buying or building houses on flood plains, makes no sense to me.

 

[Farmer_Joe]

In a town close to me there is a river called the wharfe,

It floods, problem is theres loads of nice old big terraces near the river that get flooded every time the water gets out, theres also a marker on a stone wall well up from the river marking the height it got to in somthing like 1900 (never been this high since).

its flooded a few times in my lifetime (prob more when i was younger) and yet every time the residents blame climate change for the flooding, i dont get it, its flooded for hundreds of years and will continue to do so, your buying a house which i would say it likely to flood but every time they are surprised?

Its awful for those people but im just not quite sure what they expect?

 

[Scribus]

I have sympathy for people whose houses get flooded, my son is one of them. However many of these houses would never have been bought by a farmer in the first place because generally we have enough common sense to look around at the surrounding land and water courses and assess the risk. I suppose it is unfair to expect the average house buyer to have those skills and in many ways they would be relying on their surveyors when contemplating a purchase but we all know that competency in that area varies tremendously. A friend of my wife was looking at a new build house to buy. She has a friend who is a surveyor who took a look at the house for her, went and had look in the roof space and told her to walk away, it wasn't safe and he doubted it would last out the 10 year warranty. So all sorts of potential problems to buying a house and ultimately we have to rely on our own judgement.

I often suspect there is a great trade going on amongst those in the housing game, from mortgage companies to banks to estate agents to surveyors etc. Transferring property ownership is big business and although I doubt there is much direct corruption they are all in in for the moolah and it's all nods and winks and the pretence of being very professional as they relieve the poor buyer of vast sums and help themselves to a slice of it.

 

[britt]

I think we forget how times change.
The houses you refer to by the Wharfe were probably built before houses had electricity, had tiled floors, and not much "stuff" in them, so on the rare occasions that they flooded they were swilled out when the water had gone and they carried on.
The low lying farmland was protected and valued by the authorities when food production mattered, now nature is valued more.
It used to be farmed in an opportunistic way that allowed for that risk and perhaps needs to again.

 

[Gator]

Floodings been going on since Noah was a lad, and it will keep on,no change there, the fact that they build on flood planes ( there's a clue there) and tarmac and concrete everywhere all the run off as to go somewhere. The rivers, dykes gullies where not made to take the amount of run off that's seen today.

 

[betweenthelines]

You don't need to be a genius or even pay a solicitor to suss out whether a property may be prone to flooding just look at the name of the place.

Flood risk names: anything containing or ending in, ford (it means river crossing) valley, bottom, bridge, bank (as in river) lake, brooke, or the name of a local river.

Probably safe: anything containing or ending in: Tor, Top, Hill, High, View (but not Riverview)

I'm sure you can think of a few more "local" terms.

I used to rent land at a place called Plymbridge-it was underwater 3 months of the year, yet the land at Hemerdon Ball could carry cattle all winter (Ball is a local term for a hill )

 

[egbert]

C

good luck with the cow

Cow was up at feeder when I got back later, fine.
She's a smaller 2nd calver, with photosensitivity issues making her feel a bit put upon by life, and she's oft last to push into the feeder.
But she's licking herself -where she's got coat-, belly filled and happy.

Meanwhile, another bunch of 16 got fed up waiting for me, and invaded the yard - coming up the road.
They included 2 with calves I wanted indoors, and another needing the bull, so it was a result...in a way.

(Today is a day to remind myself why I keep so much Galloway blood in the sucklers!)

 

[Princess Pooper]

Personally I thought the guy from Lincolnshire who made a big fuss about his farm being flooded was slightly ridiculous. The pictures on the news showed the farm being below the level of the river bank!
He should send a bill to the council for water storage.
Also aren’t the Somerset levels a natural flood plain?
Farmers farming on flood plains moaning whilst equally calling people idiots for buying or building houses on flood plains, makes no sense to me.

Not ridiculous at all. a lot of Lincolnshire is below or very close to sea level and the rivers and drains are held within raised banks. It is not a 'flood plain' and is is a landscape that has been engineered for hundreds of years. They pay drainage rates to help maintain these. The only reason his farm was flooded was because the bank was breached and he had no help or support from 'official channels' for several days. Then because of the water levels, no where to pump the water to.

 

[steveR]

C

Cow was up at feeder when I got back later, fine.
She's a smaller 2nd calver, with photosensitivity issues making her feel a bit put upon by life, and she's oft last to push into the feeder.
But she's licking herself -where she's got coat-, belly filled and happy.

Meanwhile, another bunch of 16 got fed up waiting for me, and invaded the yard - coming up the road.
They included 2 with calves I wanted indoors, and another needing the bull, so it was a result...in a way.

(Today is a day to remind myself why I keep so much Galloway blood in the sucklers!)

You are referring to the homing instinct I assume.... As opposed to the "disappearing over the hill" habit!

 

[egbert]

You are referring to the homing instinct I assume.... As opposed to the "disappearing over the hill" habit!

those coming back into the yard?
They're depastured on 240 acres of very rough, which includes the entrance road - and which is the whole herds launch pad to go out on the common come spring.
They know very well where breakfast is coming from, and indeed, where the hay cupboard is, should I be late, and the front gate get left open...

Their homing instinct is remarkable, once out on the common.
They're turned adrift on a 26,000 acre common, with as much again in unfenced contiguous ground,
but seldom venture more than a mile from where I'd expect to find them -itself about a mile and half up the valley from the yard.

 

[steveR]

A

those coming back into the yard?
They're depastured on 240 acres of very rough, which includes the entrance road - and which is the whole herds launch pad to go out on the common come spring.
They know very well where breakfast is coming from, and indeed, where the hay cupboard is, should I be late, and the front gate get left open...

Their homing instinct is remarkable, once out on the common.
They're turned adrift on a 26,000 acre common, with as much again in unfenced contiguous ground,
but seldom venture more than a mile from where I'd expect to find them -itself about a mile and half up the valley from the yard.

Great description.... I love properly naturalised cattle like yours. Can you use the word "hefted" in relation to cattle??