Your experience of living next to a farm..

[meagain3]

We’ve viewed a gorgeous house we love but it’s next to a farm..

pros/cons of living next to one?

What kind of farm? Diary, mixed, poultry etc.

Early starts, late finishes at certain times, noisy machinery, collection and delivery vehicles, rabbit control after dark (shotguns) frequently being held up by farm traffic and smells.

Didn't bother us but you need to be fully aware (and not complain after you move in …. 😁)

We rented next to a farm once…. Noise and smells are the downsides of a working farm. And the noise is very early morning and could go on late at certain times of year. On the upside we had fantastic views from our front windows which looked away from the yards. Tbh I wouldn’t buy next to a farm. It was ok as a temporary thing but wouldn’t do it long term

Need a bit more info on what kind of farm and how big etc. Like living alongside battery chicken sheds or a pig farm or arable or what?

Farmland is quite likely to get sold these days anyway for development as it becomes harder for farmers to be able to make a living. That development could be smart new builds or a solar farm or something worse.

Lived on a poultry farm, I absolutely loved it but then I was working on it. We were up at 5 and had alarms going through the night so can be noisy plus when we had catching we’d be up through the night with lorries.

Mainly peaceful. Harvest time tractors will be out late night after night. Road can be muddy & slippery. I used to have a cow audience when I hung out my washing. They were fascinated. It was funny. Smells when fertilizing or when the wind was in the wrong directìon. I found it easier than "normal" neighbours but the farmers were considerate. Helped when we were snowed in, cleared the road for us etc.

Type of farm matters. Chicken farms can smell bad (I love the smell of cow manure though, that can be wiffy)
There can be lots of flies if there us animals.
Also they don’t stop. You can expect stuff going on all year round.

Other than that I would say it’s brilliant. Farmers are resourceful. You’ll never have to worry about getting snowed in or stuck in mud if you are friendly with them. You can learn a lot about how the countryside actually works.

Flies everywhere. My sister lived in a cottage by a farm and the flies were awful.

Apart from that it was lovely. The neighbours were lovely people and the views were stunning.

As others have said, the type and size of farm will make an enormous difference. (As will what crops they raise, if arable. We lived in the countryside surrounded by fields of rapeseed about ten years ago, and it turned out that it set off DH’s hay fever violently.) If you like to walk on field paths and bridle ways, what livestock is kept may curtail that — I became very cautious about cattle after a local walker was trampled by a herd.

Lots of flies, we have sheep fields next to us and need to put up screens

As others said, it depends on what type of farm it is. But it can be very smelly, noisy at unsocial hours at certain times of year, large machinery and lorries arriving departing etc. If you are keen on walking, don't assume about paths, check out that they exist. Hayfever and flies.

There are lots of plus sides too - good neighbours, very resourceful and helpful, local fair, fresh produce easily available, beautiful views and walks, animals both domestic and wild.

Depending on type:- Flies (little ones and the massive horse fly type ) , smells, bird scarers going off from dawn to dusk, large vehicles, noise from grain driers, machinery in fields working all hours, squealing, mooing, especially when calves and cows separated (sounds awful), muck spreading, piles of rusting machinery, farm buildings erected in front of your view.

Can bucolic but generally isn't.

Make sure you aren’t upwind of it. Many more animals are kept indoors for longer now - huuuuge cowsheds in this area.

I live on a farm in the one house that’s not part of it. I love it! As pp have said completely depends on the type.

its a wheat barley and potato farm!

Flies!! I was brought up in a small village which had 5 working farms (all dairy and arable) and just had smells and increased noise during silaging and harvest periods. However now exH and I moved to a village when our kids were teens and lived next door to part of a farm, not a very well kept one with a couple of sheep barns and loads of manure and mess and the flies were horrendous. Horrible blue bottle things that swarmed together despite extensive bleaching of the affected areas each winter. the buzzing made me feel sick!! Was not sad to leave that house

It's noisy
It reeks

All the time

Do not complain if you move in. That's someone's livelihood and they were there before you

I live across the road from a mixed farm; arable & dairy. The benefits of living in the countryside far outweigh the downsides. Fresh air, lovely environment & views, great walks from my doorstep, mostly peaceful & quiet etc.

The main downsides are the smells of the cows (not too bad), muck spreading (grim) & huge piles of cow shit dumped in a field over the winter waiting to be used as fertiliser. Noise from machinery, ploughing, sowing, hedge mowing, harvesting, the milk tanker arriving at all times of the day & night etc etc. In winter the roads are covered in mud & during the current dry spell it’s very dusty.

So no livestock? Great- no flies or poo smells then. You’ll be able to glean spuds too!
Apart from the relative busyness- if there we weren’t on a farm I’d only see the postman and the odd rambler, you’ll likely barely be impacted. Arable isn’t early early start. A few days/ year of late or nighttime harvesting. Possible rabbit control (shooting at night) and more sinisterly lamping.
If you’re moving with children think very carefully about their safety. We weren’t there then but one of mine would have had me frantic with worry- it may be calm but there’s still heavy machinery. You have treat security as seriously as if you were on a busy road. Ditto dogs.

No smells, no activity at all for much of the year.
Busy at harvest and when drilling.
The main thing I would be wary of is when they spray pesticides or fertilisers.
I keep the windows closed then.

I'm in Devon, v close to several farms (mainly poultry/egg production), I'd say just arable would be bliss. Machinery, mid and tractors I can handle. The fucking flies are driving me insane atm!

I used to live on a stud farm so relatively quiet really, but the farm half a mile up the road bred turkeys. There really is nothing like being woken at the crack of dawn by the sound of a thousand gobbling turkeys.
😂

Muckspreading!

Muckspreading will make your eyes water, but it's only once a year or so (the whole village stank to high heaven when they did it when I was a kid)

Then harvest (or if they leave a field fallow/let it grow grass for hay) can be odd times (they were out baling still at 10pm last night next to me - because it was going to rain today and they needed it done)

But it's not a lot - arable will be no problem at all (TBH, I don't mind the sheep/cows either - but poultry I would definitely avoid. I have a few chickens, and their bad enough - noisy/a bit ripe sometimes)

There will be mud.

but other than that, and maybe some crop spraying, you probably won’t notice that much. Field mice decamping into your house at harvest time, maybe.