AIBU to be fed up with walkers trespassing on our land?

This would do my head in - and I would be less polite. Just remember any horse/dg incident should be reported to police and ask them to refer it to the Dog Legislation Officer.

You also mentioned sheep worrying. The law has just changed on this (in the farmers favour) to an unlimited fine https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-law-comes-into-force-to-protect-farm-animals-from-dog-attacks.

I would make signs saying your land is protected by CCTV (or something similar) and walkers need to follow the footpath. Dogs caught worrying sheep/horses or crops being damaged will be reported to the police.

But many townsers watch country file and just think it is all a bit of fun and games and everyone is cool with them tramping over farmland with the untrained dog(s).

I'm a runner and have run a particular 5 mile loop hundreds of times over the years. Part of it is a farm track and historically the farmer has never minded people using it - just a sign saying keep dogs on leads.
During covid times he erected a load of signs and started closing the gate, and posted on the residents FB page.
I know the chap and was stunned at what he told me.
Dogs off lead, picnics, rubbish, answering back, straying off the track.
Thankfully as he knows me, he's happy for me to continue to run along there.

Another local farmer actively discourages people using the footpaths that cross his land by not having any signs. I tried to find it once, but got very lost and told off by him. I know his neighbour who told me clearly where the path was so now I happily run there.

You need a fence up ,and a bull in your field

This. It cuts both ways.

I can't find the interview with the farmer. The initial report in the local paper was much less emotive than those in the tabloids, though they all missed the fact even if a sheep isn't attacked, it can still lose its lamb through fright. [The Sun's take on it was: 'A PUPPY was “shot in the head” and killed by a farmer who was worried for the safety of his sheep.
The dog, who was only one-year old, tragically died after the incident on a Scottish farm in Ballingry, Fife yesterday.'

Only The Courier made the risk of miscarriage explicit. Mind you, The Courier serves farming communities.

https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news/fife/2079898/sheep-worrying-animal-welfare-charitys-warning-to-dog-owners-after-fife-pet-shot/

Golfers should also not be taking a shot when people are crossing on a actual footpath, seeing as they are the ones who can cause potential harm. A bit of quid pro quo required there!

Well, that's sort of my point. People who live near or in rural areas, but aren't actually country people ... just townies who moved out. They're the worst because they're the most entitled.

This clear track with bark chipping and a sign saying please clear up after your dog as this is a working farm and you must stick to the path

I can't seem to find it, but I remember seeing a programme about a bloke who was having difficulties with people walking and camping on his field as it was next to a new glamping site. Crops where damaged and his livelihood was failing.

Friendly request, signs and the police all failed and like you fencing was difficult/ ineffective. So he set up an irrigation sprinkler system on his land with, I believe, watered down manure type fertiliser. Three months and problem solved, cops thriving and no more trespassers. Maybe plain water would work?

Go foraging for fox poo and put it along the boundary.

He'll be the one crying when his dog gets shot. Arsehole.

I was reading about 36 sheep killed during a dog attack recently, and another sheep that had to be euthanised after having their face ripped off by another dog, poor creature. 🥺 I like sheep and they don't deserve to be attacked while going about their sheepy business.

I think in France farmers sometimes put up “Danger - snakes!!!” signs (in French obviously).

I sympathise to a degree. Some landowners deliberately make public footpaths impassable or divert them for no good reason or put a bull in a field the footpath goes through, or if they haven't got a bull they put up a "Beware Bull" sign to scare walkers away. I once strayed off the footpath slightly and the landowner was on it straight away, and asked me how I would like it if a stranger walked through my living room. No - someone walking across one of your fields is not the same as you walking through their living room.

The problem with signs is that the only people who bother to read and obey them are the ones for whom the sign would never have been necessary, and who are then left wondering why on earth a sign was ever needed in the first place.

Even if the entitled kind of people do glance at them, they just assume they don't apply to them and ignore them anyway. They reckon that they're 'not doing any harm', so the farmer was the unreasonable one for putting up a sign on their own land; not them.

Funny, really, as somebody wandering through their garden and maybe stopping for a picnic and letting their dog run around there would also be 'not doing any harm'; yet THAT is a completely different matter!!

A few years ago, a dog owner's relative went to the press because a farmer shot their dog. The dog had got into a field with sheep...

The one good thing that came out of it was that it made certain folk less likely to take their dogs into farmland.

I note the Record's use of emotive language such as 'pooch'. Our local paper actually interviewed the farmer, but there's a paywall for their article.

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/puppy-shot-through-head-killed-23786666

You are joking - but there are fields near us that people have dedicated to dogs and rent them out. Depending on the size of your land / access etc. it might not be a ridiculous idea to fence an area off and rent it out. Obviously, this would only be an idea if it were financially viable, but potentially you could make some money out of this.

I hate the entitlement of people generally, whether that is in schools, hospitals etc. Sorry to hear of your troubles

Put up a big sign saying 'This is private property. Dogs will be shot by the farmer'. Worked in our village! 😃

Large CCTV signs are good as well.

England represents a massive amount of land - 8% of that is still an enormous load of public-access land.

A huge proportion of the countryside is working land - where farmers grow the food that we all depend on. It makes as much sense to say that the public should be automatically free to wander through it as to say that all factories should be free to roam through.

To be constructive here, and just in case, do your signs tell people what is private / where they'd be trespassing OR do they show where they can go? I hike a lot, and some trails obv go through private land, and I find it much easier to follow when the signs are frequent and are telling me where I can be, not where not to go. I think some landowners do that latter but not enough of the former so it gets confusing and stressful. Other thoughts: for fields, put up a fake 'bull may be in the field, stick to public footpath' sign; get someone visiting you to try walking through it and work out if you are actually in need of signs in some specific locations (user testing) because i think sometimes people think things are obvious which just aren't if you've never been somewhere before. assuming that a proportion of the people trespassing are doing so accidentally, those actions will at least lower the amount of it you're dealing with, if not erase it due to occasional idiots.

This annoys me. I am a walker but I don’t have a dog. I would love to see ‘free to roam’ rules but because dog walkers let their dogs sh#t everywhere it will never happen. I don’t understand why people can’t pick up after their dogs, and I don’t understand what anyone would drop litter/leave a mess. We should all be respectful of the countryside and peoples land.

You could use fencing either side of the path but I am guessing that would cost you a fortune.

Tbf it's the locals round here who are the biggest culprits, they seem to think as they live here it's a free for all.

YANBU. I used to live backing onto a National Park.

I remember the time DS called to me to say a couple had set up their picnic in what was effectively our front garden. I thought he was joking. He wasn’t.

Most townies & suburbanites are idiots, and have no idea about actual farms. They think because they live in a "naice" village, wear Hunters, & listen to The Archers occasionally that that they are countrysiders. They're not. They're just suburbanites.