AIBU to be fed up with walkers trespassing on our land?

[Pricelessadvice]

We have a family farm that, unfortunately, has a footpath that runs through it.
The footpath turns and goes into some woods and off our property but many people ignore the turn and just carry on around our land. This is mostly dog walkers. They then let their dog crap on our fields and just leave it. We take a crop off the land- some years a hay crop, some years beans, others wheat- but people just don’t seem to care.
I am always polite when I see someone trespassing. I ask them if they know they have left the footpath and I point them back in the direction of it. 9 people out of 10 get really arsey about it. I get all the excuses in the book- “it’s just fields/I always walk here/I can do what I want/it’s just grass/other people do it”
Ive had off lead dogs chasing my liveries horses (who have permission to ride the headlands), sheep being worried, the list goes on.

There are plenty of signs telling people where the footpath is and where it isn’t, but they get ignored.

When I try to explain to people that they wouldn’t like it if I walked my dogs in their garden every day and let them poo everywhere, they just argue that it’s not the same coz “these are fields”
SIGH
The Covid year was a bloody nightmare with people wandering everywhere.
When did people get so entitled? AIBU to think that people just think they can do whatever the hell they want nowadays?

Your bias is showing.

Yes, never mind the damage to the environment and injury to animals, as long as we can bash evil landowners.

That reminds me of the old joke:

I stepped outside my front door the other day, only to find a German shepherd taking a big steaming dump in my front garden... and then, as if that wasn't bad enough, his dog came in and did the same!

That field 2-3 miles away from their house is not some random piece of land that they selfishly keep pretty for their private entertainment. It is the equivalent of your WFH space, whether that is a laptop on your kitchen table or a nice, quiet room set up for your convenience. Farm fields are working spaces, even if you townie cannot see anything happening in them. Where do you think food comes from? Do you want to eat bread made from dogshit-smeared wheat? Do you want to eat bread at all? Or does it not matter to you if trespassers trample the wheat so that it is unusable? You know the dust that you rinse off your potatoes before you cook them? How lovely for you to be confident it is just soil. Would you feel the same if you knew that the potato field has been used as a dog toilet by hundreds of dogwalkers? I’m sure you’ll complain of milk gets more expensive. Do you know how little farmers are paid for their milk? Do you think that they can afford to euthanise cows who have been poisoned by leftover picnic rubbish, or injured by eating litter?

It’s worse than comparing farm restorers to strangers picnicking in your own front garden. It’s more like strangers picnicking in your WFH space and using your open laptop as a cheeseboard.

BTW, I’m a townie.

We all have to eat.

That’s the same fencing we have put in , same set up….the footpath goes through the middle of the field so fenced in both sides.

Excellent suggestion!

It doesn’t surprise me at all that most people are combative when spoken to. It’s the same here. I’m so damn tired of people being where they shouldn’t be, gates being left open and animas being fed.
We have given up this year and fenced the worst place. People routinely stopped to picnic in one of our fields, leaving litter and once a disposable BBQ in the field with livestock in. Well the joke is on them now as we have just put up a high fence and planted hedging to make the pathway clear, narrow and without the view across the countryside. The locals are up in arms but tough, we have tried to work with them and now we have had enough.

People witter on about open access , if you want access learn how to respect the land and the people who care take it. Don’t leave your litter, 💩 in the fields (no I’m not joking) and shut the god damned gates. It’s not hard. Public right of way are just that a right of way. Not somewhere to stop and have a picnic, not somewhere to exercise your unruly dogs. A right of way from A to B nothing more. Farms are working landscapes, our factory floor if you like. You don’t demand access to local factories do you? So don’t demand access to working farmland either.

Does that include your garden? Can people roam and let their dogs crap in your garden as long as they clear it up?

Not true. We have a small field at the back of our house, an old farmhouse. The public footpath is adjacent to our drive, with two stiles at both entrances to the field. The path is kept clear and is clearly sign-posted. Occasionally sheep (not ours) graze in the field. We have had people wandering around our house and garden, throwing rubbish everywhere, letting their dogs loose despite signs reminding people about ground-nesting birds in the spring/summer months, and, as I mentioned in a previous post, setting up a tent in our private garden which is clearly not public land. The level of entitlement from some people is through the roof but, in my experience, rarely the landowners.

Ignorant and stupid thing to say. Where do you think your food comes from?

Some people are idiots.

Wow. You are astonishingly ignorant.
Scary scary times indeed, if people have that level of ignorance in them.

Thankfully you are in the minority on this thread because the thought that people have such biased and frankly uneducated views, is very worrying.
Our land is essentially our office. That’s where we earn our living. It’s not just a big pretty garden that we want to keep all for ourselves because we are evil land owners.
They are crop fields where we produce crops that we sell. You know, to make food for people and animals? It’s a small family farm passed down through generations. We don’t make millions. We don’t make hundreds of thousands. We earn enough to live. You’d actually be bloody shocked at how little income our farm generates! It enables us to continue to keep the land in the family and farm it. You might be surprised to learn that it doesn’t earn enough for us to take a summer holiday. So your labelling of us as awful entitled landowners is frankly bloody insulting. Farming is not a cushy number.

Im not asking for people to stay out of my big sprawling garden, I’m asking for people not to trespass, and let their dogs crap, all over the source of our income.

You don’t need to fence off all your fields, but you do need to fence off the ‘pinch points’ where people are leaving the footpath/ignoring signage, and wandering into your land. Get a map out, contact your County Council PRoW officer, and work out how to stop this. There is a solution. You just need to find it.

Good luck!

I sympathise with your position, but in Scotland people are entitled to walk across fields if they don't contain crops. They have to exercise that right responsibly and landowners are required to facilitate that right. So perhaps you're betraying your ignorance in suggesting that something is absolutely outrageous and unworkable when it's been happening in Scotland for a long time. I've walked across many fields of sheep, never doing any damage or frightening the animals. And no, that's not the same as walking through someone's garden. Gardens are excluded from the right to roam, as are farmyards. The idea is that a small number of people (this is more the case in Scotland than in England) own most of the land, and that without a right to roam that deprives the majority of citizens of the right to enjoy their own country. The problem of course comes when rights are abused, and no doubt through people not being educated and brought up to behave responsibly. But I do think that land owners are unwilling to see things from the other perspective - the perspective of people who spend most of their lives shut in tiny houses and flats with a few square metres of overlooked garden.
Key points when managing land | Scottish Outdoor Access Code

Wow- this sign says it all really- entitlement cuts both ways. Plenty of people ‘work hard’ but can’t afford to feed their families, let alone buy land. I imagine there is also a great deal of inherited land also…
im not excusing dog fouling or damaging crops, but there is an imbalance here

I totally agree with you but the problem seems to be that as more and more people try to move to the country for a better quality of life (whatever that is), the more that those of us trying to make a living there have to deal with their nonsense. It’s not a theme park; it’s a factory. Dogs are actually dangerous both physically and from their faeces and where do these people think their food comes from?
Also, the right to roam in Scotland (responsible access) does not give you the right to walk through standing arable crops. My understanding is that their rights are conditional on acting responsibly, which includes not causing damage to crops or interfering with a farmer's livelihood so people still couldn’t do what they are doing to you. Some people on this thread are so ignorant.

Stop being so polite for god's sake!!!!!!!

That’s irrelevant to my situation as there’s two key differences here. I’m not in Scotland and our fields are crop fields.
Is letting dogs crap on people’s land responsible behaviour?

Blimey, I’ve got some posters telling me I’m obviously rude to people and some telling me I’m too polite 😂

@Scaryscarytimes if you live in a tiny tiny house and want to enjoy the countryside, there's nothing to stop you. That was me, in a small city flat. I've walked for miles in the countryside and enjoyed the National Parks for years. I've literally never felt the need to damage farmland, worry animals or disrupt the farmers' work I've never had a dog or a portable BBQ, and if it eat, I clear it away. It's that simple.
Every year I discover new walks and new vistas. It's entirely possible, even if you stick rigidly to the right of way.

You literally said "I am always polite"!

On your local FB page apologise. Apologise for shooting that collie/labrador/whatever because it was worrying your sheep/cattle/whatever.. Could the owner collect the body as soon as possible or you will have to dispose of it yourself.
Now you know it's not true but will the dog owners? Your name will be mud but it might make the inconsiderates very worried.in future especially if you are spotted carrying a shot gun or they hear one being fired.

I am, yes. There’s no point being an arse as it just gets peoples backs up even more.

I agree. It's always best to take the higher ground, even if you're tempted to be rude!

Is your primary aim to stop people wandering over your land or not get their backs up? If it's the latter then keep doing as you are doing (and have them get your back up instead). If it's the former then you need to mean business and that means not worrying about people's feelings so much. You are dealing with people who don't give a crap about your feelings or respecting your property. There are ways of being serious and firm and meaning business that do not involve being an arse. Asserting your own rights and needs does not mean being an arse. Being overly polite to people who ignore polite requests and are arsey back means you are being a pushover. The polite phase of the process of keeping people off your land should be over because it didn't work. The other thing to consider is that the more you allow people to wander on your land the more likely it is that they will start to gain the right to do so.

Absoloutely shocked at the stories of what people get up to on trespassed land.

guess that is my naivety - i thiught that people who go for country walks respected the country land.

I do appreciate clear signage though where it could be confusing. A tiny little green disc pointing forwards that you passed three fields ages ago isnt always helpful 😅