AIBU to live in the middle of a wheat field?

[user1485182339]

Great house on the market just outside of town, completely surrounded by wheat fields, and whatever they might rotate in during off-years. Perfect for us, so we're putting in an offer. Now someone has gone and mentioned long-term health concerns from crops literally growing on your doorstep. Automatically presumed spraying is regulated these days so wouldn't cause any harm, but should I instead be worried about the kids developing cancer or asthma something? They're only little still.

There is a chance of wild Thresea Mays running around, would you be ok with that?

I used to live in a similar location - the only downside was when they grew rapeseed (every third year I think) which triggered hay fever with asthma-like symptoms. I also used to try and go out when they were spraying the crops.

Hahahahaha edmund

We live in London - smog central. You can't get much worse than heavy city pollution.

Being surrounded by wheat fields must be better. And they will hearty wheat field kids, surely?

The screen of my PC is covered in soot by the end of a normal day if the house windows are open. I dread to think how our lungs manage.

Few places are havens of fresh air these days.

Any allergies in the family? My parents live next to farmland and my hayfever is horrendous when I've been over there. Maybe if I lived there permanently I'd get desensitized though.

Sorry, op, serious answer is that I grew up around farmland- I did have asthma but I was still healthier than I am now living in a city. Bored, but definitely healthier.

I grew up in a house that backed on to a wheat field in the days when crop spraying was much less tightly regulated. It's absolutely fine. There are way bigger dangers to health just from ordinary, unavoidable factors like air pollution from cars than from living near a wheat field.

Suppose not just the spraying (I'm totally ignorant about what goes in that stuff), but the noise when they're tending to the field plus...any chances fields could be sold off for development? Could end up with views of a building site

Goddamit edmund. You beat me to it! 

Edmund
I came here purely to post that.

OP I wouldn't, I'd have the same concerns as the person who mentioned spraying to you. It isn't nice stuff.

I grew up surrounded by fields-crop spraying,burning the stubble and loose fox hounds.None of this stuff goes on like it did in the 70s so you and your kids will have the best bits instead.I had a lovely childhood playing in the fields.Plus the spraying hasn't done me any harm yet.Mum used to keep us inside but we still spent days running through sprayed fields.

What can I say? It's one thing to risk noxious chemicals around kids, but risking waking up to a dawn chorus of 'Strong and Stable' by a gaggle (?) of Theresa Mays in my back garden would certainly put me off...

We lived next to a huge field. The wheat was fine. Very dusty when it was cut. The year they grew cabbages, and the smell of rotting cabbage at the end of the season was something else though.

If its not organic arable then it's likely to be treated with glyphosate. It's banned in many countries but in routine use in the UK. I'd say find out about the land use and do some research on glyphosate....

Muck spreading days will be stinky.
Asthma can actually be worse in the countryside depending on what you are allergic to. But if no allergies, you should be fine. Just be prepared for smells sometimes when much spreading or from particular crops.

Thank you for the TM warnings replies.
Edmund. Actually, the first thing we checked was whether Theresa May ever frequented these parts of the country's wheat fields. As for the May chorus.........
DrWh nothing serious, no. The sort of 'allergies' that aren't really allergies and just mild inconveniences. Kids are healthy bar usual kid-things. I guess no way to know until you're bunkered down amidst the stuff. Do people develop through exposure or are more likely desensitised?
NotMy I doubt it. Planning consent, green belt, etc. The noise issue from farm vehicles I'm willing to live with. Shouldn't be 24/7/365, surely?
Thanks Mavis. Is it just a general vague unease?

There is a chance of wild Thresea Mays running around, would you be ok with that?

Ha ha. Theresa May Wheat Bae.

toomany I've been trying to get hold of the farming corp to ask but no luck yet. Will persevere.
Letit Did NOT think about cabbages. Will investigate immediately.
One day of muck or mulch every now and again should be okay. Bin days here in town are pretty rotten times and that is every fortnight!

We live in the middle of a wheat field. Find out from the vendors what crops are rotated with - we are a 1 year wheat, 1 year rapeseed cycle. Rape can be a bit smelly - a strong distinctive, but not unpleasant oily smell when flowering, and then a boiled sprout smell as the plant dies back and dries before harvest. During the wheat years we get loads of thunderbugs (also known as threps) - miniscule flying creature that get everywhere, behind laptop screens, under photoframes. During the rape years we get huge numbers of Meadow Brown butterflies in the house. Spraying is infrequent and doesn't worry me. Harvest is amazing (especially if you have young children) as the machinery used is massive.

That's helpful about the insects, Origami. I guess they don't bother you enough to have ever wanted to chuck it in? Out of interest, how long does the rapeseed smell last?

The butterflies are lovely, the thunderbugs are annoying in as much as you keep seeing them in weird places (they are attracted to white) but neither are worrysome - I was just trying to come up with some disadvantages for you!

Neither of the rape smells are constant, they come and go according to the weather (e.g. the boiled sprout smell is most noticeable after the rain, so I got a whiff this morning). The smells are only noticeable when you are outside, not from within the house.

Muck spreading goes on in our village (sometimes it is incredibly overpowering at the school) but they have never spread muck (that I've noticed) on the wheat/rape fields surrounding me.

Edmund yet another post to say I was about to write the same thing. Great minds think alike

I wonder how many of us are here to make a Theresa May joke?

We live very rurally. Issues you might want to consider are -
Combining all night for a period from about now with lots of dust, huge floodlights and noise.
Access to public transport when children reach a certain level of independence.
Vermin living in field and need to rat proof the house.
Mobile phone reception- if important to you. Similarly internet availability.
Isolation in winter due to snow and ice cutting you off.
Need for careful larder planning if no shops nearby - a pain if you run out of things.

Sounds lovely. We are also surrounded by fields (currently all oilseed rape) and love having no neighbouring houses. If we see the farmer spraying we keep the windows closed for a few hours, but it's not at all often. Perhaps you can ask the farmer to notify you before spraying so you can go out or take washing in etc. Biggest problem with wheat fields is the sodding cornflies, those teeny little black things, but it doesn't last long.

Muck spreading may only last a few days but bear in mind that farm use can change. You may end up in amongst fields of pig units which are stinky all the time. Or the farmer may decide to plant something smelly like onions. It's probably not a big enough risk to stop you moving there, but it is something to bear in mind.