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.

Oh that's awful OP, I'm sorry. Any chance of putting up a barbed wire fence to keep people to the path?

Awful OP.

Signs would make no difference, other than a good photo when people ignore them. Forestry commission have great signs, no parking on the verge, ambulances require access. Queue everyone parking on the verge.

We have had to put no parking signs in the lay-bys. Incase anyone is interested these are PASSING places, not parking places. We cannot open the gates into the fields when people park in them. We cannot actually turn into the farm when people park in the one at the road end. Do people read them, possibly, do they still park there, absolutely.

Signs please keep dogs on lead, lambing time, ignored. Sheep all stressed and muddled.

Signs saying please shut the gate. Ignored, hundreds of sheep muddled together.

Did have a smile at bull grazing your wheat field though.

@Moonmelodies

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

I think some people on this thread misunderstand the term ‘footpath’ in this context. It doesn’t imply a paved or ‘maintained’ pathway, just a legally-protected right of way, usually but not always marked with a signpost or yellow stake, across someone else’s land.

Often, other than a stile or kissing gate into a field and a stile or marker showing where the path crosses the field boundary at the other side, there will be no indication of the path on the ground on grassland, apart from wear from people walking.

All the landowner needs to do is ensure it’s not blocked. If a footpath goes along the edge of a field it should not be ploughed. If it goes through the middle, it may be ploughed, with the stipulation that a 1 metre minimum width path must be made within 14 days of ploughing.

The OP hasn’t neglected anything.

Grew up in a village and no locals went walking in fields in soggy mid winter! Too flipping muddy!

It’s true that people don’t know the countryside code. Loads of people now descend on local beauty spots as options for travel are limited. Mainly they are clueless. There was loads of ‘wild camping’ near us.....,the litter they left! And human waste.

We should all be able to enjoy the countryside but jeez have some responsibility. Can’t wait for shopping centres to open again so the culprits can return to their usual habitats. And yes I’m judgemental.

Also, the point on crops vs grass -

It matters very little to me. We also have grass because we have livestock. And grass, at this time of year, like wheat, will be trampled into a mud bath as well.

The grass we grow on a three year ley isn't anywhere near as established as permanent pasture so it does become poached easily. And it is there for foraged to be silaged and stored. So when people have trespassed in the past, come feeding time we've found cans and footballs and even condoms in our cattle's food, which is absolutely grim.
That and the dog shit, which can be fatal to cows and calves if ingested.

So ruining the grass isn't preferable to ruining the crops to be honest.

I just wished people would use a bit of common sense and a bit of courtesy.

The answer is obviously education because this thread clearly highlights that there are lots of well meaning people who just do not know the intricacies of the countryside.

I feel your pain. We've had endless walkers climbing through our hedges recently, climbing over locked gates to trespass away from a muddy footpath that's not even on our land. They walk through our garden and they do not give a fuck when you challenge them about trespassing. And for the ignorant on this thread- it is not, and never has been, the landowners responsibility to maintain the surface of the path. That is the job of the council- so moan to them if its too muddy. Or buy some £10 wellies, you entitled shits.

@amber763

Farmers are required to maintain a 1m wide footpath if it goes through their crops, and they're not allowed to obscure it with crops. That poster shouldn't have to turn back from a public right of way.

Obstructing a public right of way is a criminal offence.

I’d print off and laminate a few signs, that’s what we have done to try to help stop problem feeding our animals and various other issues . We’ve never had any problems until this year. Everyone in the village is upset by the amount of litter too, never seen anything like it and we have always had a lot of walkers at weekends. This year is totally different.

Also judging by the ignorance on this thread we need a public information drive. Yh e idea that footpaths need to maintained?! Or fenced off. Maybe the farmer should tarmac them?

Yanbu op. What arseholes.

On our farm there are publics roads running through which are lovely for walks but the footfall has increased massively during lockdown and since people have to drive here the verges have been torn up by cars. What really annoys me though is people parking their cars across our gateways to avoid the torn up verges. Yesterday I caught someone parking across one as we were about to move a big batch of sheep and when I asked them to move their response was "but it's a sunday, surely you dont need to be moving sheep today?"...yeah cos we get weekends off, I honestly couldnt believe it! They did move but weren't happy about it

I’m a townie who loves the countryside and pre-covid would spend every weekend walking with the kids across (right of way)fields and always sticking to the paths. Following the countryside code to the letter and explaining it to my children. We would never look in peoples windows (though I have been known to admire a front garden) or park in considerately.

I haven’t been out of town since last March accept one day after the first lot of restrictions were lifted allowing us to drive for exercise. We got to our favourite walking spot (15 minutes from home) and bloody hell, the place we used to never see another soul was absolutely rammed with day-trippers. Parking on verges and double parking. It was awful. We didn’t stop the car, we drove straight home.

We have left the countryside alone this year, we are respectful and understand that in influx of visitors is harmful to agriculture and don’t want to add to that. I expect anyone who truly loves and respects the country are doing the same as us.

I just wanted to reassure you that there are people who love and respect your land, we are just leaving you alone for now.

Honestly had no idea about this. I’m not usually a dickhead and do my best to be a good neighbour and show consideration to others. I’m pretty sure signs would make very little difference to lots of people, however I will definitely make sure I stick to the 2m path in future. I would always usually but as paths extend in really poor weather I am sure I have contributed to it by trying to walk to the edge and therefore exacerbated the problem! Thanks to your post, I certainly won’t do that again.

I don’t know the countryside well and I don’t know any country people!
I know that sheep can be worried by out of control dogs so always keep mine on a lead. I’d never feed a horse and always ask the owner f they are happy to be petted or stay well away.

This insistence from some people that anyone that doesn’t know the things they know must be an idiot, is completely self obsessed and insular!

@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.

Unfortunately attitudes like this are all too common. Me Me Me. Bugger the rest of the world. Just hope CrotchBurn hasn’t got children.

Honestly, some of the comments on here. Please educate yourselves on the countryside or keep out of it. Farms aren't theme parks, they are a workplace - and can be a dangerous one at that. We have people wandering onto our very obvious private farm yard because "they heard animal noises and wanted to look around". So rude.

Erm....much of it is common sense though

Ah OP, people are cunts. We have horses. At one side of the field is a public footpath, maintained by the landowners the other side of our field. At the other side there is a 2m gap at the top of a bank. Down the bank is ndns horse field. One or the other of ndn or my yard owner owns the gap, they both agreed years ago to leave a gap so the ponies can't touch noses. It's not an accessible gap, it's literally a banking dropping about 5m.

Few months ago yard owner was approached by half a dozen walkers with OS maps and sticks and back packs complaining and kicking off that the footpath/right of way wasn't being maintained. Yard owner said 'you need to go up there and turn left, that's the path mate'. They wouldn't have it. Spent 45 minutes trying to force their way down the gap which is inaccessible to everyone except a shetland pony that occasionally escapes to graze it. Eventually turned back and went the way yard owner suggested.

Someone from council came out a few weeks later to assess footpath. Had maps, looked at them with yard owner before agreeing actually it wasn't a footpath, they were off course by about 500m. But if it had had crops or stock or fencing on it, walkers were adamant it was a right of way.

The answer is obviously education because this thread clearly highlights that there are lots of well meaning people who just do not know the intricacies of the countryside.

This, you’ve identified your problem. I expect people are wearing wellies when they go for country walks, but even in wellies it’s going to be difficult to walk a path that’s that churned up. I very much doubt that anyone is deliberately causing harm, I expect they don’t realise the harm that would be caused by walking on the very edge of the path, which causes the path to look slightly wider, and then others follow and do the same. You need to either make the boundary clearer, or accept that there are too many walkers this year because people have no where else left to go and hope it gets better next year.

We need more countryside education. Had no idea what ‘footpath’ means in this specific context.

There are just so many people walking at the moment and everyone is trying to keep two metres apart. That, coupled with the mud, is making a lot of footpaths experience overuse and damage.

It's very hard to manage for farmers and other land owners.

I wonder should the councils and the ramblers associations be required to fund fencing to their right of ways across land to keep the walkers in and off the land?

It's lockdown walking - people trudging through paths and fields who normally only ever walk down the high street.

I get it, I really do. there is so little to do at the moment and people need to get out of the house and exercise.

The problem is, if you don't normally walk in places like this there is a sense of entitlement, and dare I say it, stupidity. People who think that they are free to roam wherever they like, who wear the most ridiculously inappropriate clothing, who let their dogs wander freely and don't seem to know how gates work (if you can open it, then you can shut it).

I walk hundreds of miles every year. And I really appreciated those farmers who maintain the public rights of way by looking after the stiles and clearing the brambles. I don't want tarmaced roads, I want to walk in nature. I don't want miles of fencing. It is clear from the photo that they Op has done exactly the right thing. The right of way is clear. It has become wider and wider as more and more people have walked off the actual right of way to escape the ud. Either buy wellies or don't walk that way if you don't want to get muddy!

Lots of my local paths are a wet, muddy mess at the moment. I know where they are, and I will not walk there after rain. They are not going anywhere - I can walk there again in a few weeks time.

This is why it is such a shame that the National Trust's very generous and sensible plan - to keep properties with large outside spaces open for free in lockdown 1 - was spoilt because idiot people went there in their hundreds by car. We have a property local to us. It has masses of outdoor space. It is close to a large housing estate. Many hundreds of local people could access it by foot from their front door, and it would give people a safe, 'clean' (ie no muddy paths) outdoor space. It would also reduce the traffic on the public rights of way through farmers fields.

@maddening

I wonder should the councils and the ramblers associations be required to fund fencing to their right of ways across land to keep the walkers in and off the land?

Then farmers would lose a chunk of their land. A field ploughed and put under wheat or another crop would potentially have a fenced-off path running diagonally across its middle, or half a pasture made inaccessible to grazing sheep or cattle.

@maddening fencing may work in a limited number of our fields. But where a path crosses an arable field, fencing it is out of the question. We have tractors running the land year round and having fences up is just not practical, nor good for the soil compaction on the land.

@flamingflamingos out of interest flamingo, can you estimate the loss the damage has caused? If people on this thread knew how many bags of flour the trampling had cost they might be able to appreciate that this is food that will no longer exist for them to purchase. Especially right now, we need to cherish every bit of fertile soil we have.