Farmers dogs on public footpath

[Cuppateeee]

Just been on a lovely walk in the countryside, only to be spoiled by a shouty farmer. Need a different perspective on it otherwise it will just wind me up. Will include picture.

Walking with my dog on a lead through a field, staying on the public footpath when I see two border collies barking in the distance. I stay where I am to look for a farmer to check if they are aggressive or not, no one in sight, they are staying where they are but still barking and in the way of where I need to walk, so I went back and walked down the other side of the fence.

I get to the bottom and see the dogs have gone, also notice the gate was open so they could have got to me anyway, never mind I’m there now and go over the stile back onto the public footpath.

Only then I notice the dogs have come back, so again I check to see if I can see the farmer because whilst they weren’t growling they were barking which is intimidating enough.

At this point there is a fence between us so not a problem but I check to see where the public footpath leads and you’re supposed to join the farm track but their gate is open. The dogs are following me and my dog down the fence, still barking, so I decided to walk away from them not wanting to risk what would happen when we reach the open gate. I am at this point on the farmers field.

After a few steps a farmer comes running shouting for my attention, I stop and see what he wants. He said ‘the footpath doesn’t go along there, you’re damaging the crops’. So he was clearly watching me, and would have been able to see that I was uncomfortable with his dogs around.

There is snow on the field so I wasn’t sure what I was walking on but either way I said, sorry I appreciate that but your dogs were being aggressive towards me and my dog so I felt I had no choice.

He kept repeating that if I can’t stick to the path then I shouldn’t go on the walk, which in normal circumstances I totally agree with, but in this case I felt it best, to protect me and my dog.

He insists his dogs are not aggressive, they are with him at this point, still barking but I admit not growling or coming closer, just staying with him, but I said again that I was not to know this and didn’t want to risk anything happening to my dogs.

In the end I walked away because he clearly could not see my point of view.

So was IBU waking on his land or was he. And if he was is there anything I can do to stop if happening to someone else. Sorry for the long post, thanks for reading.

Rights of way through the middle of fields can’t be all that common. Where it occurs, if I was a farmer, I would think about fencing and/or think about different uses of the land.

They are really common - throughout the whole of England and Wales.

I think your bull is a Welsh Black unbearable , doesn't look chunky enough to be an Angus and Herefords have white faces. The cattle in the background look like dairy/ crosses, maybe Jersey cross going by the colour of the brownish one, but I'm in no way an expert though.

Fair enough.

Where a farmer owns a field which contains a right of way, he/she has options but must understand that the right of way can place limitations on their use of the field.

Title deeds have Burdens in them. Farmers must act in accordance with them, or they can sell the piece of land.!

Thank you weeds the poster who was talking about the legalities of him being either dairy or beef and therefore legally or illegally in a field with a footpath through did make me chuckle a bit. I wouldn't have got in there with him for a million quid!

Here he is again side ways on

Crops and livestock should be properly fenced in so that the public is not inconvenienced. They rarely are.

Crops don't need to be fenced in, they don't move from their spot! Walkers just need to respect the fact that they're there, and keep off them, and farmers need to observe the routes of public rights of way by not planting on them.

Livestock is a bit more tricky. A few years ago, I'd have poo-poohed the idea of fencing livestock from public footpaths, but after a few incidents of walkers being killed by cattle, I'm not so sure. Even less sure after encountering some very pushy cattle on the Isle of Purbeck a couple of years ago.

Fencing looks so ugly, it rather spoils the walk anyway (although not as much as getting trampled by cows).

“Crops don't need to be fenced in, they don't move from their spot!”

Surely people don’t want rabbits or other wild mammals eating crops, or deer traipsing through them? I’ve seen fenced crop fields.

I have never seen anyone, ever walk their dog or themselves across a field of crops in my life. There can’t possiby be many people around moronic enough to do that.

Fencing can be erected pretty cheaply so as to be almost entirely see through. There are fences near me which you just don’t notice.

Streetwise hahaha invisible fencing that is strong enough to contain cattle, with a mesh small enough to stop rabbits, high enough to prevent deer from jumping it..all for a price of 'cheap'. You really are looking a bit silly now.

Oh and also in some magical way that allows the farmers stock through it so they can cross from once side of their grazing field to the other.

He kept repeating that if I can’t stick to the path then I shouldn’t go on the walk

^ This. Farm land is a working environment, and bloody hard thankless work it is at times. Public footpaths are an ancient right, they are not meant to be tourist attractions.

The dogs were probably barking just to warn the farmer someone was there. A massive crime wave is hitting farms at the moment, with theft, vandalism and animal rustling escalating. They've probably seen all manner of fuckwittage from people.

“Streetwise hahaha invisible fencing that is strong enough to contain cattle, with a mesh small enough to stop rabbits, high enough to prevent deer from jumping it..all for a price of 'cheap'. You really are looking a bit silly now.”

Is this a joke?

4ft medium tensile wire fencing and fence posts with a run of rabbit mesh dug in along the bottom is more than enough.

“Oh and also in some magical way that allows the farmers stock through it so they can cross from once side of their grazing field to the other.“

You use a gate for that. Not very difficult, is it?

The thing that most people don't understand is that not sticking to your side of the bargain to be responsible in the country - no matter where you're from - has far reaching concequences for the farmer past a bit of inconvenience caused. It's lost crops which reduces yield which can affect contracts to supply in the future, it's the suffering and death of animals which not only has the same concequences in regard to loss but the emotional effect, not to mention the vet bills and increased insurance premium.
The 'loss' to your average person who is affected by a farmer blocking a right of way by either not calling his dogs back or not maintaining the path, not having stiles etc, or some animals in the field you're not comfortable with is someone having to turn back and add a couple of hours to a walk.
And that's without the people who drive like idiots and end up ploughing through fences that releases livestock or damages crops. (This has happened near me to the point where the farmer is losing a quarter of his grazing as he's had to double fence)
The stakes are far higher for the farmer.
I know some farmers can be just bloody awkward about stuff, I've come across them, but then I've also had a vet bill run into a couple of grand because someone decided it was their right to feed my horse things that can kill it, because their grandchildren wanted to feed the horsey. The insurance paid, but who's stuck with the increased premiums? Who was up night after night with an incredibly sick horse? Who's had to pay out for electric fencing so the horse cannot reach the fence that runs along the field with a public footpath? Who had the people who caused it shrug and say I was making it up and was just being a posh bitch and precious over my horse because I didn't want people touching her? Me, I did. Part of the problem is that people don't understand the concequences of their actions and can't conceive they're 'that bad' and therefore think it's farmers/landowners/country folk exaggerating, when in all likelihood it's not.
And if you're going to spend time in the countryside, then you're going to come across all manner of animals, some can be dangerous even when they don't have any intention to 'attack', keep yourself safe and learn how to deal with those situations and you'll enjoy the countryside more.

“A massive crime wave is hitting farms at the moment, with theft, vandalism and animal rustling escalating.”

Evidence please of this rural crimewave.

What the cattle open the gate streetwise!!

Seeing him side on, I'm revising my guess to Angus, rather than Welsh, unbearable. Neither are particularly known for being agressive, but you are right to be cautious. Either way he's beef!

“What the cattle open the gate streetwise!! ”

What the actual fuck? It is farmers who open gates and move cattle between them. Do you not understand even that?

Sorry, I missed that you were joking there. Didn’t see who had posted.

bigger while you make many valid points you cannot say that the farmer was not in the wrong here and that the OP was - you weren't there. It is a legal requirement to adequately control dogs, you simply can't say that he was or wasn't from the posts.

If he is basically saying his dogs can do what they like and if you don't like it don't walk that way that is quite simply not the case. It's really ironic when you consider a lot of the examples of unreasonableness are of people not controlling their dogs I the countryside. Or maybe they were just barking slightly and she was being wet we will never know will we?

Do they have to stand out there all day just in case the cattle want to move from one side of the field to the other!

@StreetwiseHercules

I realise that was aimed at another poster but it really is a problem on the rise. I have quite a few farmers (or family members) on my FB and most of them have suffered some sort of theft of equipment, break in or vandalism in the last year. Our hay/straw supplier had a whole field of baled straw ready to come in set fire, he suspects a stray cig end as he saw people in the field earlier on - public footpath - he doesn't want to think that someone would do that on purpose but the result is the same.

www.google.com/amp/s/www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/08/05/rural-crime-soars-thieves-target-farms-country-businesses/amp/

You wouldn't be able to walk there if it wasn't for the farmer farming th land. It would be a housing estate otherwise. The dogs were barking, that's what they do. You are being U and a bit wet imo.

streetwise
rural crime

I typed rural crime 2018 into Google and it was around the second hit btw