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

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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?

Put up a big sign saying 'This is private property. Dogs will be shot by the farmer'. Worked in our village! 😃

Large CCTV signs are good as well.

I hate the entitlement of people generally, whether that is in schools, hospitals etc. Sorry to hear of your troubles

You are joking - but there are fields near us that people have dedicated to dogs and rent them out. Depending on the size of your land / access etc. it might not be a ridiculous idea to fence an area off and rent it out. Obviously, this would only be an idea if it were financially viable, but potentially you could make some money out of this.

A few years ago, a dog owner's relative went to the press because a farmer shot their dog. The dog had got into a field with sheep...

The one good thing that came out of it was that it made certain folk less likely to take their dogs into farmland.

I note the Record's use of emotive language such as 'pooch'. Our local paper actually interviewed the farmer, but there's a paywall for their article.

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/puppy-shot-through-head-killed-23786666

The problem with signs is that the only people who bother to read and obey them are the ones for whom the sign would never have been necessary, and who are then left wondering why on earth a sign was ever needed in the first place.

Even if the entitled kind of people do glance at them, they just assume they don't apply to them and ignore them anyway. They reckon that they're 'not doing any harm', so the farmer was the unreasonable one for putting up a sign on their own land; not them.

Funny, really, as somebody wandering through their garden and maybe stopping for a picnic and letting their dog run around there would also be 'not doing any harm'; yet THAT is a completely different matter!!

I sympathise to a degree. Some landowners deliberately make public footpaths impassable or divert them for no good reason or put a bull in a field the footpath goes through, or if they haven't got a bull they put up a "Beware Bull" sign to scare walkers away. I once strayed off the footpath slightly and the landowner was on it straight away, and asked me how I would like it if a stranger walked through my living room. No - someone walking across one of your fields is not the same as you walking through their living room.

I think in France farmers sometimes put up “Danger - snakes!!!” signs (in French obviously).

He'll be the one crying when his dog gets shot. Arsehole.

I was reading about 36 sheep killed during a dog attack recently, and another sheep that had to be euthanised after having their face ripped off by another dog, poor creature. 🥺 I like sheep and they don't deserve to be attacked while going about their sheepy business.

Go foraging for fox poo and put it along the boundary.

I can't seem to find it, but I remember seeing a programme about a bloke who was having difficulties with people walking and camping on his field as it was next to a new glamping site. Crops where damaged and his livelihood was failing.

Friendly request, signs and the police all failed and like you fencing was difficult/ ineffective. So he set up an irrigation sprinkler system on his land with, I believe, watered down manure type fertiliser. Three months and problem solved, cops thriving and no more trespassers. Maybe plain water would work?

This clear track with bark chipping and a sign saying please clear up after your dog as this is a working farm and you must stick to the path

Well, that's sort of my point. People who live near or in rural areas, but aren't actually country people ... just townies who moved out. They're the worst because they're the most entitled.

Golfers should also not be taking a shot when people are crossing on a actual footpath, seeing as they are the ones who can cause potential harm. A bit of quid pro quo required there!

I can't find the interview with the farmer. The initial report in the local paper was much less emotive than those in the tabloids, though they all missed the fact even if a sheep isn't attacked, it can still lose its lamb through fright. [The Sun's take on it was: 'A PUPPY was “shot in the head” and killed by a farmer who was worried for the safety of his sheep.
The dog, who was only one-year old, tragically died after the incident on a Scottish farm in Ballingry, Fife yesterday.'

Only The Courier made the risk of miscarriage explicit. Mind you, The Courier serves farming communities.

https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news/fife/2079898/sheep-worrying-animal-welfare-charitys-warning-to-dog-owners-after-fife-pet-shot/

This. It cuts both ways.

You need a fence up ,and a bull in your field

I'm a runner and have run a particular 5 mile loop hundreds of times over the years. Part of it is a farm track and historically the farmer has never minded people using it - just a sign saying keep dogs on leads.
During covid times he erected a load of signs and started closing the gate, and posted on the residents FB page.
I know the chap and was stunned at what he told me.
Dogs off lead, picnics, rubbish, answering back, straying off the track.
Thankfully as he knows me, he's happy for me to continue to run along there.

Another local farmer actively discourages people using the footpaths that cross his land by not having any signs. I tried to find it once, but got very lost and told off by him. I know his neighbour who told me clearly where the path was so now I happily run there.

Yep, we’ve had signs pulled down in the past. I get there are people who trespass unknowingly, but to be honest, the majority do it knowing dam well that they are on private land. They see our signs but just think it doesn’t apply to them, or that nobody can stop them. Some of our worst offenders use the “oh but we’ve been walking this way for years” as if that makes it ok. Or “well I’ve never had anyone tell me I can’t walk this way”. I’m sorry that I have a job and a life and can’t sit out there from morning til night to catch every single person who decides the signs don’t apply to them 😅

Unfortunately we can’t see the majority of the land from the house and yard so unless we are specifically out that way, we have no idea who is wandering around. We can see who is walking the footpath through the yard, but then they are out of sight. I think a lot of people realise that and use it to their advantage.

We had a friends sheep come for a few winters and that was stressful! I was terrified about dogs getting in with them (several dogs did, they got through the electric fencing that had been put up to keep the sheep in). My stress levels did not go down until they went home in the spring! We lost 2 one winter in unknown circumstances. Found dead with bite marks to them. We didn’t see what happened though, so couldn’t say for definite.

This would do my head in - and I would be less polite. Just remember any horse/dg incident should be reported to police and ask them to refer it to the Dog Legislation Officer.

You also mentioned sheep worrying. The law has just changed on this (in the farmers favour) to an unlimited fine https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-law-comes-into-force-to-protect-farm-animals-from-dog-attacks.

I would make signs saying your land is protected by CCTV (or something similar) and walkers need to follow the footpath. Dogs caught worrying sheep/horses or crops being damaged will be reported to the police.

But many townsers watch country file and just think it is all a bit of fun and games and everyone is cool with them tramping over farmland with the untrained dog(s).

Oh I totally understand OP.
We own some ancient woodland and maintain it as a wildlife area. We have owls, pied flycatchers, all 3 types of woodpecker and ground nesting birds nesting out there as well as a big badger set. I'm sick of people letting their dogs roam around it, disturbing everything and shitting wherever they feel like it.
The area is hedged and wire fenced and clearly marked private property. Final straw was when we caught some men chopping down a tree to use in their wood burner. I think we are going to have to fence it all and that will cost a fortune and spoil the wildlife corridor.

One group we found had obviously picked up their dinner en route and enjoyed it in our fields. When I went over to explain this was private land, they gave me a mouthful of abuse and left all their rubbish on my field. I had to go and get a bin bag and dispose of it all.

Covid times were a nightmare. Not helped by the lovely weather that brought all the masses out! I met some of the most awful human beings during that time. It was truly eye opening. The ‘right to exercise’ seemed to become ‘right to go and do whatever they want, wherever they want’.

In Scotland we have right to roam. Most farmers have paths around their fields to allow people to walk which keeps them off the main fields. I walked over the field yesterday from our house to the stream, I used the path left by the farmer.

Put a sign up saying Muck spreading regularly takes place here, do not trespass. Then chuck shit at the walkers.

I can see both sides. On the one hand, I do think we should have a 'right to roam' like in Scotland. It's horrible - and I think very unfair - seeing lots of beautiful countryside that isn't accessible.

However, our usual walk goes straight across one field until it meets a proper path (all proper footpath but it gets ploughed up regularly - though I think the farmer does flatten it down a bit) and people do let their dogs poo on the field. I've only just moved here and I pick up poo but I have wondered how much the poo contaminates crops/machinery. There's also the fact that people leave litter everywhere.

Out of interest, does anybody know how it works elsewhere in the UK if there's a particular path that's an ancient right of way which goes awkwardly right through the middle of somebody's field?

Is it allowed for the landowner to divert it slightly around the edge of their field - so there's a direct equivalent that takes you to the same place - or does it strictly have to be THAT exact pathway?