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.

Even if it was 'just' grass, do people not realise that farmers grow grass to feed their livestock through the winter?

Op - sympathies to you.
We have a few pedigree cattle that we rent grazing for. For the last 2 years I have electric fenced off a strip (wide enough to drive down).

I also put up signs asking people to keep dogs on leads and not feed the animals, and warning signs about the electric fence.

Last summer we had a jersey calf and cow. We calf share so leave mum and baby together and just milk the cow for the excess the calf doesn't need.

I had 3 complaints that dogs had been zapped by the fence.

Found picnic rubbish one time.

Heard screaming and went to see what was going on and someone with a dog on a lead had walked over to show their toddler the cute baby calf and the mama cow didn't want the dog near her baby!

So fencing doesn't even stop entitled ignorant twats, neither do signs.

I don't know what the answer is...... as a teacher I would love to say education, but it's more than that IMO. It seems there has been a shift in attitude that anyone should be able to do what they like at any time.

@Chumleymouse

It should have a fence of some kind separating the path from the crops then this wouldn’t happen.

So she should install an expensive unnecessary fence for people to climb over and destroy anyway?

Also she would lose farmable area as you can't farm right up to the fence.

On top of that do you really want miles of fencing all across the countryside?

Honestly

@CrotchBurn

FFS the aggro on this thread. No I wouldn't be able to tell this field is for crops. Why would I? I'm not from the countryside. How the fuck am I meant to know what a winter wheat field looks like? When would that knowledge ever have been useful to me? Make the path obvious or put up a sign. This is what we invented words for.

The knowledge might be useful when you’re causing damage to other people’s property because of ignorance , just so you can have a walk in the country . Ignorance is no defence . And for all those saying fence it -do you know how much it costs ? Thousands and thousands of pounds, and even then , people ignore it . The family that were caught in our fields had climbed post and rail and electric fencing. And had the temerity to complain when they got zapped .

I've seen two posts on Facebook about this in the last 24 hours and one dead horse that had been fed by walkers. I can't believe there is no public messaging about this when it's obviously such a problem. Disgusting behaviour by people with no consideration, even if you aren't from the country side, it's not rocket science.

I live rurally, and have been a hill walker for thirty years. Sadly the only solution is fencing or a clear path.
This is why the national parks have big slab pathways or hardcore. Unfortunately people are selfish and stupid.
I know it’s an expense but it’s the only solution, especially now that so many are using the paths.

OP can you look at any local tree schemes or whips ( preferably with thorns) add a very simple post and barbed wire setup, until they get going?

For the lady who found a toddler in with her cows, Jesus about 10 people a year are killed by cows..

We have people feeding the horses!! Climbing the stone walls to get a good view. They get very rude when you point out they are damaging the walls and the horses don’t need extra food.

There’s a really lovely wood near us that leads directly into fields. I am gobsmacked by the number of dog walkers who let their dogs run through the wheat in summer! I’ve also been for walks with friends and their DC, and been really surprised when they haven’t batted an eyelid when their DC do it. Poor DS- I’m rigidly telling him to stay on the sodding path when everyone around him is doing exactly the opposite.

Can I ask OP, do you mind people going on the edges of the fields once you have harvested the crop? Before anyone jumps on me- we don’t do it, I’m just curious.

Where I live a farmer was pissed off with people straying off the path into the field so they fenced the path. Very generous size- far wider than legally required.
Half the village were furious about being 'fenced in' and their dogs not being allowed to run free in the field.

All those who say 'why not fence it' have no idea of cost of fencing, and it doesn't solve stupid people.

You shouldn't have to but it might be worth putting up a couple of signs.

I think some people really are stupid and don't actually realise the damage they are doing, or even consider that that is a crop that will make bread. Most people are pretty blind to both nature and farming these days.

Dc are learning the countryside code in Cubs at the moment. I remember learning it in Brownies as a kid.

Unfortunately too many people these days don't even know it exists, let alone the Highway Code instruction of walking towards oncoming traffic if there is no footpath.

@flamingflamingos, I suspect there is little you can do except post all over social media about it - people tend to see social media more than they would think to read the highway and countryside code.

To be fair the footpath in the OP's photo doesn't look 'maintained'. It doesn't look fit for purpose.

I wonder if that's because people have trampled all over it? 🤔. We were taught 6ft/2m from the outside boundary in towards the field should be the footpath/walking area around a field, to ensure we didn't trample crops. It's clear to see the trodden area is wider which means it would be impossible for subsequent walkers to know where the edge of the field is.

I don’t really understand. Nobody would choose to walk through mud if there is a footpath available. I live in a very rural area and there are no paths or pavements, I would love to walk on a path.

Paths alongside fields are kept clear and that's as much as a landowner should have to do.

If you want a well maintained footpath, walk round Asda's car park.

@Moonmelodies

To be fair the footpath in the OP's photo doesn't look 'maintained'. It doesn't look fit for purpose.

The top bit, next to the hedge? That’s a pretty decent path that I’d consider clear and defined if I were on a walk that crossed fields.

That rain and increased footfall leads to paths degrading comes as news to some people astounds me.
Plan your walk according to the weather conditions, your footwear, crops and livestock, it’s really not difficult.
Treat the area off the path as a No Go area. Just as if there was a steep drop, or a tangle of brambles or a herd of bullocks at the side of a flimsy fence.

People are so damn selfish, OP, at the moment. No previous thought of countryside walking until their usual pastimes curtailed and treating it like a theme park.

A footpath should be 2m wide, so people have more than enough room to walk in that photo.

Sadly some people are both stupid and ignorant “I didn’t know it was wheat” but surely you have the intelligence to realise that a ploughed field that looks largely ‘empty’ isn’t a natural feature, even a young child can identify a ploughed field.

A fence would be very costly and idiots would damage it. Are there signs showing direction? I have in some areas seen footpaths marked out with wooden stakes every few metres, again costly and labour intensive, but may reduce crop trampling.

Even fencing doesn't stop selfish idiots. I've watched people clamber over our wobbly fence rather than walking to the gate about ten metres away.

It does look like the footpath is between the big hedge and the smaller bits of hedge?

For those of you suggesting putting a sign up, do you have signs on your garden marking it as private?

Since this pandemic started, we have spent a not insignificant amount of money putting "private" signs on gates, signs asking people not to block gateways as people seem to gravitate to parking in our farm gateways rather than anywhere else (why?!). It's a marked footpath, why should I then need to go to the trouble of signing it further for ignorant people?

We probably will run some electric fencing along it but no doubt the battery will get nicked or someone will pull it up on annoyance of "being told".

It angers me so much because this is our livelihood. But also, we're good landowners. Every field footpath is properly marked and even cultivated fields are run on and flagged so no one has this issues @5foot5 has identified.

When I go walking to the Peak District I take an OS map with me so that I know more of less exactly where every public right of way runs.

This crop won't grow back now, it's trampled to nothing. It might not look much, but farmers make bank by harvesting crops and selling them.

when i was in school I learnt the countryside code, as part of the unit where we learnt map reading skills. However, I was 11. I used the skill as we regularly went walking as a family. But for the majority of my friends, it was one of those things to listen to and then forget as it didn't apply to them then. it would have been better to put it within all those lessons where you learn life skills, but in the last year of school. or repeated every year even. this is the only way people will learn.

I live rurally and there are no footpaths on the farm where we rent. There is however a farm track which shows on some maps and the number of people we have had walking here since last year is unbelievable - through the yard, past the signs that say private, past the house and into the fields. When asked if they’re lost or have permission to walk there the abuse that comes back is unbelievable - one person when asked if she’d not seen the sign that said private replied “I chose to ignore it”.

Signs and fences cost money, people ignore them and pull them down anyway so I don’t know what the answer is - just pray that this all goes away before summer I guess. I hope that it is mostly ignorance, but for a fair number it’s a sense of entitlement and a total lack of care that this IS someone’s workplace and livelihood.

YANBU OP

It’s the same here. Yesterday the village car park was full with cars full of families all completely inappropriately dressed for the very, very muddy conditions (suede shoes, white trainers and leather leggings).

Lots of the cars had plates from miles and miles away (Chester, Powys and Hertfordshire).

The litter in the park and on the footpaths in the Summer was disgusting, as was the harassment of livestock. I caught a family of four doing a photoshoot with the lambs in the neighbouring field ( as in picking them up and moving them away from the mother).

People don’t care- not their community, not their problem.

The farmers on the hill lost a calf this week because if was chased by someone’s dog and broke a leg. The walker didn’t go for help and the poor thing died in the field.

Don't use private signs, it comes across badly, especially if the line of a path is not clear.
use signs that say where the footpath actually is. That makes it easier for people, and people tend to do easy

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

That's not a "thing"?! We have public rights of way going directly through the middle of arable fields. I spray the crop off as I'm required to so that there is a clearly identifiable route, but fencing them off would be a) incredibly expensive b) not very enjoyable to walk on c) make life with farm machinery 100% more difficult to operate as I'm effectively severing fields in half

Oh but don't get me started on litter. Following a trail of orange peel and sweet wrappers!

Maintain your footpath so it's usable and people will use it.
Such a silly comment.
It's not the farmer's responsibility to nanny you. If footpaths are very muddy and you don't like it, don't use them.