Do you live near a farm that uses pesticides?

[DarkGreen]

Is it a problem? We are moving to a house next to a farm that sprays pesticides and wondered if it will have any impact on us?

I live rural and next to farms and haven't the foggiest if they spray pesticides, never occurred to me to check! So in that sense, no it doesn't knowingly effect me lol. I hope not any way!

Pesticides are used commonly even outside of agriculture. If you lived in an urban environment, then it’s likely pesticides were also sprayed near you, be that from the council on highways, national rail on the railways or even just neighbours. Pesticides on farm is far more restricted and sprayers need to be certified. Unlike your neighbour who can spray whatever they can pick up at the garden centre without requiring to even read the instructions on the pack.

There are farms who won’t be compliant and there will be farms that will be going over and above in terms of their pesticide handling so it isn’t just a case of saying all farms have pesticide issues. Even next to a non-compliant farm, it is high likely unlikely that there will be any problems. We also back onto a farm, that certainly doesn’t have any voluntary measures in place and is probably to the lower end of compliant. Neither of us have grown a third arm yet.

The farms round here spray herbicides to kill off the grass or whatever is on the field before ploughing and reseeding.
Not good but it seems to happen regularly ie maybe twice a year, not on all fields though, and no one complains.
I have used glyphosate weedkiller myself so I recognise the smell when it is on the air. However, I believe that they are banning glyphosate, possibly phasing it out over the next few years.
Not sure about pesticides - depends what they grow probably.

I live next to an arable field and as PP says they spray to clear the ground, and then if wheat they spray as the crop emerges to prevent weed competition. I haven't seen anything die in my garden because of the spraying.

Modern pesticides have better safety profiles so risks are low unless you're handling them every day.

Pesticides cost money so farmers tend to only use the minimum they need.

I'm glad someone else is concerned about this. Although farmers will always need to do it, unless you lived near an organic farm. I live in the middle of town and have recently asked our council not to weed spray next to my house as I weed it and let some wildflowers grow. yes, I am one of those people who is worried about the bees.

Big arable feed out front (upwind) that gets all sorts of sprays. I think they have barley in this year.

I live in a rural area & walk, run, cycle a lot -- try not to go thru the fields right after spraying, so spraying affects my life that way.

.. if you think about it, the sprayers & combines etc. are not so contained that farmers themselves don't get exposed thru air vents. Farmers may be blasé about risk but they don't want a pointless cancer, either. The sprays have to be safe enough for the agricultural workers themselves to be only get a safe dose even though they get lots & lots of exposure.

We have fields all around the house, that do get sprayed. We tend to go back indoors while the spraying is actually happening, but once it’s down it doesn’t really affect us much. Never killed off anything in the garden and we seem to have no shortage of insects or other wildlife around. It only happens once or twice a year at most.

Interestingly we’ve always grown really good veg in our garden - I do wonder if we benefit from some of the fertiliser run-off from the field at the back...!

Farmers partner 🙋🏼‍♀️ if you're staying next to a farm you'll see them out spraying frequently, especially just now. And I haven't noticed an issue with it.. I just don't allow my dog into the grass verges straight after spraying.

They shouldn't spray in the wind anyway so you should be fine not to come into contact with it.

Farmer here. As a previous poster said,you'd be more at risk from your neighbour,who can spray his garden with pesticides/herbicides willy nilly,with no safety training or protective equipment.
Farmers have to be certified to even buy herbicides and pesticides now,as well as apply them,they are expensive, so minimal quantities are used.

Hey I live near two farms, I'm surrounded by farm land front and rear. I honestly don't know if they use pesticides except I thought all farms did?

Haven't had a problem with it