To just ask you all to either wear some proper wellies and walk on the footpath, or stick to the sodding pavements

[flamingflamingos]

This is my field. It's winter wheat - it's been ploughed and pressed and drilled and rolled and just as it's starting to grow into what will be harvested for flour to produce bread, the general public have trampled it into the ground.

I understand the need to get outside, absolutely I support this country's network of footpaths - we have 6km of footpaths on this farm which are maintained so that everyone can enjoy the countryside.

But this is taking the piss. If you don't want to walk in the mud, don't walk in the countryside in January. Please, stop this. We are all accountable for how we behave.

@Toomuchtrouble4me

Gee - I probably would have walked on what I perceived to be the ‘edge’ of the path. It is a bit confusing to townies. Why not get a cheap fence?

There's no such thing as cheap fence.

For the people who are townies saying they would stick to the footpath not walk in the muddy field

The problem starts ( willfull damage aside) when paths , a trail across the land not a pavement, get muddy and the field edge looks nicer, especially to people who don't realise crops could be planted there , just starting to grow

Soon the field edge gets muddy and people edge further and further into the field

The BMC ( mountaineering council) code is that you should always stick to the centre of any footpath to prevent such erosion

No one should have to pay to fence off their land to prevent damage. Most front gardens in towns have no fences yet no one tramples in the flower beds

No one should have to pay to create a pavement. People have used dirt tracks for centuries . If it's too muddy for you, turn back and order done wellies

@flamingflamingos It may be that the walkers simply weren't aware of what they were treading on! Have you thought about putting some signs up so that they know where they're supposed to walk?

Well whilst i have sympathy with farmers whose land is definitely being trampled on by more people who are trying to maintain social distances whilst walking, there are some mean spirited farmers local to me that have now taken the law into their own hands and have blockaded rights of way that have been used for dog walking for years.

it's a difficult one but farmers who haven't maintained borders for years appear to be getting aggressive about it locally to me. We are all suffering with this pandemic, a bit of balance is required.

@Mysterian is that shuttlinlow ?
Yes the path has in places been repaired . The path is made up of grave stones taken from a now derelict church in the town centre.
Used to walk up there often. Now can't as it's busier than the town centre.
Signs saying to keep dogs on leads due to cattle/sheep & nesting birds.
Litter everywhere.

@KathleenTurnerOverdrive

If it's a public right of way why isn't it fenced off from the crops?

The OP has 6Km of footpaths. Can you imagine the cost? Plus paths often go across a field which can’t be divided, if it has livestock etc This country is covered in public footpaths that are not ‘fenced off’.

Honestly, the lengths people are supposed to go to rather than put up with the stupidity and ignorance of the great entitled public!

@lifeturnsonadime

Well whilst i have sympathy with farmers whose land is definitely being trampled on by more people who are trying to maintain social distances whilst walking, there are some mean spirited farmers local to me that have now taken the law into their own hands and have blockaded rights of way that have been used for dog walking for years.

it's a difficult one but farmers who haven't maintained borders for years appear to be getting aggressive about it locally to me. We are all suffering with this pandemic, a bit of balance is required.

Can you blame them if people are trampling over their crops and harassing their livestock?

[quote Tzimi]@flamingflamingos It may be that the walkers simply weren't aware of what they were treading on! Have you thought about putting some signs up so that they know where they're supposed to walk?[/quote]
Whoever tore the electric fence down can certainly be in no doubt that they weren't supposed to do so.

I'm sorry about your wheat flamingos. I hope the damage doesnt spread wider, but I wont wear wellies. Suitable footwear, and stick to the paths, yes. Wellies no.

All those who think footpaths should be fenced off as a matter of course, please talk to me about mountains, coastal footpaths and long-distance ways.

By your logic, the entire South-West coast, from Dorset, through south Devon, around Cornwall and north Devon, should be fenced off, to avoid people straying into fields (and it does cross farmed fields in the main). But, oh no! There are some steep and occasionally treacherous cliffs on the coastal side! So unsafe. Surely that side should be fenced off as a matter of priority? So you'd end up with the entire coastal path running through a narrow corridor between two high fences. Does the SW coastal walk still hold the same appeal?

How about the many ancient long-distance routes that run through Europe? The Camino de Santiago, that ends in western Spain, begins from points across France, Germany, Belgium, southern England etc. Fence the lot???

Mountain tops. Narrow paths, sheep, boggy bits, steep, even deadly drops. Fence the lot? That'll enhance the natural beauty, eh!?

I feel for you. Our local farmer plants wild flowers along the edge of his field each year. After planting last spring, he put up signs asking the hordes of walkers not to trample them. The signs were torn down and the beautiful flowers destroyed.

His crops have also been destroyed over the past few weeks; by idiots who don't want to get their white trainers muddy! We are in a semi rural location, with vast parks avaiable within walking distance of most people. Yet, each weekend, thousands of people choose to drive to our village to use narrow, muddy paths!

Last weekend, the police finally started turning cars of day trippers away. Hopefully this will help.

A piece of wire attached to some wood posts to mark a footpath around a farm with crops growing is hardly the same as putting a high wooden fence around a mountain or all along the coast. But if it were required for some reason, then I’d expect the council or owner to sort it rather than thinking they had the right to stop people using the land.

@lottiegarbanzo

All those who think footpaths should be fenced off as a matter of course, please talk to me about mountains, coastal footpaths and long-distance ways.

By your logic, the entire South-West coast, from Dorset, through south Devon, around Cornwall and north Devon, should be fenced off, to avoid people straying into fields (and it does cross farmed fields in the main). But, oh no! There are some steep and occasionally treacherous cliffs on the coastal side! So unsafe. Surely that side should be fenced off as a matter of priority? So you'd end up with the entire coastal path running through a narrow corridor between two high fences. Does the SW coastal walk still hold the same appeal?

How about the many ancient long-distance routes that run through Europe? The Camino de Santiago, that ends in western Spain, begins from points across France, Germany, Belgium, southern England etc. Fence the lot???

Mountain tops. Narrow paths, sheep, boggy bits, steep, even deadly drops. Fence the lot? That'll enhance the natural beauty, eh!?

Well, there's a bit if a difference in "natural beauty" between a mountainside and the OP's lowland English semi rural field! But our moors, fells and dales are covered with dry stone dykes, often topped with barbed wire, and I'm surprised to discover this obsession with scenic fencing. It's not as if sports fields, schools, industrial sites etc backing onto fields or with rights of way going through them aren't fenced with extremely high security fencing.

Personally I used post and rail with wire netting underneath and a strand of electric fence just above the top rail (not always electrified). It looks good and is damned effective. The reason I used post and rail is thats what we can put in ourselves with a post knocker, without needing to use a wire strainer and deal with coiled wire.

But yes of course, in the past, fields would have been fenced but a lot of hedgerows are gone now, as are a lot of field boundaries. Commercial crops are grown all year round, and field sizes maximised not just for growing average, but to remove any awkward corners giant sized machinery can't get into. Unattatractive fencing is the least of it.

I still can't quite make sense of the OP's photo (and I am a landowner myself). Us the OP complaining of the very slight damage to the unplanned area to the right of what really looks like low sapling trees or not? Surely the entire muddy strip to the rest of those is set aside as a field boundary and the OP is paid for that in subsidy as that is its purpose - not to griw crops? Why havent the OP's hedge been cut and laid - relevant because it needs to be done before a certain date in England and doing so will mean driving on those crops or if a smaller tractor is used, on the right of way. Why complain about the mud on the boundary strip when you haven't cut and laid your hedges? I always get mine done around october/early November to avoid causing a mud fest and growing winter crops.

@NailsNeedDoing

A piece of wire attached to some wood posts to mark a footpath around a farm with crops growing is hardly the same as putting a high wooden fence around a mountain or all along the coast. But if it were required for some reason, then I’d expect the council or owner to sort it rather than thinking they had the right to stop people using the land.

That would last a day or two at most - waste of the farmer's time and money. And I don;t think you realise quite how many public rights of way there are that run down the sides of, and sometimes across fields. You can't just chuck in posts and wires along paths that go diagonally across a filed - how is a farmer supposed to work that land?It would cost councils a huge amount to pay for this. When they are already on their knees. Which services do you think should be cut in order to pay for flimsy fencing? Social services? Education?

I think the landowners should pay for it, not the councils. No one expects councils to pay for things that landlords are required to provide, farmers are no different. Or, if they don’t want to pay for it, they’re are choosing to run the risk of crops (and their income) being damaged. Up to them.

I appreciate the problem when footpaths run diagonally in a field so it might not be possible to use fencing and people should just be careful, but that isn’t the case for the OP.

@NailsNeedDoing

A piece of wire attached to some wood posts to mark a footpath around a farm with crops growing is hardly the same as putting a high wooden fence around a mountain or all along the coast. But if it were required for some reason, then I’d expect the council or owner to sort it rather than thinking they had the right to stop people using the land.

I give up

@NailsNeedDoing

I think the landowners should pay for it, not the councils. No one expects councils to pay for things that landlords are required to provide, farmers are no different. Or, if they don’t want to pay for it, they’re are choosing to run the risk of crops (and their income) being damaged. Up to them.

I appreciate the problem when footpaths run diagonally in a field so it might not be possible to use fencing and people should just be careful, but that isn’t the case for the OP.

Why should farmers have to pay when the old way of having them unfenced worked fine for generations? People should just learn how to behave.

That also goes for feeding horses (don't!), launching Chinese lanterns/helium balloons (don't!), dog walking (keep it on a lead on any land you don't own and pick up the shit), using disposable barbecues (don't!), using gates (leave them as you found them), littering (take it home with you) etc.

To be honest, the only thing which will make some idiots behave is a ruddy faced farmer brandishing a twelve bore.

GreenlandTheMovie I think we're talking at cross-purposes.

You're talking about field boundaries. I am not. I'm picking up on a point made by many, many pps, who have suggested the OP should 'simply and cheaply' put up a fence along the right hand side of this footpath (and the other 6km of footpaths on her land), so creating a fenced 'footpath corridor' between field boundary and crop edge.

Mountains and are typically accessed via lowland farmland. Coastal paths, like the famous, well-used, scenic South-West coastal path, run almost entirely through lowland farmland. Fencing off the path from the farmland would create a narrow coastal 'path strip' (and be a PITA whenever erosion forced a diversion inland).

I was mixing in another point, about perceptions of safety. The same people who are so unaware of what a footpath is or does, as to suggest universal fencing to OP, are likely to be the ones (and I've heard this view expressed a few times in real life), who see a cliff edge or precipitous mountain drop next to a footpath and express shock that it isn't fenced off, for safety.

The only thing that farmers are REQUIRED to provide , is access . That’s it . People saying ‘just fence it ‘ -you truly have no idea of the cost . It’s thousands and thousands of pounds , you’re expecting farmers to spend , yet I’d bet you’re the first to start complaining when the cost of your milk and bread goes up . If a field of winter wheat gets destroyed , less wheat on the market to produce flour. If the cost isn’t passed on and farmers are expected just to absorb it , a lot of them aren’t exactly loaded either . So they’ll do what some of our local farmers have had to do - sell up to the German and Danish , who snap our land up round here and lease it out to tenant farmers , or worse , sell it for housing . And then wave goodbye to that lovely country walk , because people can’t be bloody sensible.

All business have costs. It’s up to individual farmers whether they want to pay for fencing or if they want to pay for any lost crop. On the whole, they probably sensibly choose the former, but then they need to deal with it when we have unprecedented years where everyone is forced to go on spaced out walks.

And the answer to all those expectations of fencing, in case there was any doubt is: Use your common sense and acquire the basic knowledge required to perform the action you desire.

Maps are helpful. So are the right clothes for the conditions. There is mud in the countryside and animal poo and sometimes it smells bad. Cliffs are steep and dangerous. So are mountains, which also get colder as you go up. Do not eat the flowers. Have fun!

@lottiegarbanzo

GreenlandTheMovie I think we're talking at cross-purposes.

You're talking about field boundaries. I am not. I'm picking up on a point made by many, many pps, who have suggested the OP should 'simply and cheaply' put up a fence along the right hand side of this footpath (and the other 6km of footpaths on her land), so creating a fenced 'footpath corridor' between field boundary and crop edge.

Mountains and are typically accessed via lowland farmland. Coastal paths, like the famous, well-used, scenic South-West coastal path, run almost entirely through lowland farmland. Fencing off the path from the farmland would create a narrow coastal 'path strip' (and be a PITA whenever erosion forced a diversion inland).

I was mixing in another point, about perceptions of safety. The same people who are so unaware of what a footpath is or does, as to suggest universal fencing to OP, are likely to be the ones (and I've heard this view expressed a few times in real life), who see a cliff edge or precipitous mountain drop next to a footpath and express shock that it isn't fenced off, for safety.

I don't think we are. In many parts of the country, rights of way are enclosed in narrow strips between dry stone dykes topped with barbed wire. Plenty of landowners fence of Rights of way running through their land. The difference here is thus is an arable field. There's no grazing. It has probably changed a bit since the right of way was originally established. The field might have been originally comprised of several smaller fields (it might it, I'm speculating). It might have been mixed use or permanent pasture at one time. The original narrow right of way might have been on higher banking than it is now. There may have been features present that contributed to drainage and stabilisation of the hedgerow that are gone now. The settlements nearby have probably got larger. What we see now is not necessarily the way it has always been.

Maps are helpful. So are the right clothes for the conditions. There is mud in the countryside and animal poo and sometimes it smells bad. Cliffs are steep and dangerous. So are mountains, which also get colder as you go up. Do not eat the flowers. Have fun!

Also, pack some warm clothes and a rain jacket. Especially in Scotland.

The other side to this is how many dangerous rescues have to be carried out on people who have No Idea.

But why should they have to pay for either , just because of entitled idiots who can’t be sensible ? It’s is not excusable just because there’s a pandemic.

Why should I have to shoo people off my own land , which is fully fenced with post and rail and then fenced again internally with electric fencing , just because some stupid fucking idiots wanted to have a fucking picnic in the field with my horses ? Why should I be staying up half the night to check they don’t have colic , because the self same idiots fed them ham sandwiches and then complained when our rescue pony started getting intimidating ? I don’t have a footpath or right of way across my land but they still ended up on it because some people have just no fucking respect . Or common sense . And then complained and threatened to report me ( to who ? ) when they got zapped by the fencing , and barked at by my dogs .

I feel for you. I walk with groups and often some of the walkers think they own the field, and have the right to walk wherever they like, often completely oblivious to the crop.