# Cow muck in cycle lane dropped by farmer



## Accy cyclist (7 Sep 2012)

I saw it this morning on my way to work. Fortunately i was driving so i didn't have to cycle through it. A stretch of a cycle lane that's on one of my favourite routes is covered in thick cow muck. It startes at one gate/entrance to a field and ends at another, about a mile long. There's no way that a bike could move safely along that stretch of road, all because farmer boy couldn't be bothered to clean up after himself. He's done this in the past, but not to such an extent.
Is he supposed to clean this mess up, and if so who do i contact?


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## ianrauk (7 Sep 2012)

I would guess the local highways agency or your local council.


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## Sandra6 (7 Sep 2012)

Farmers never clean up their messes do they?? 
Plenty of roads around here are covered in all manner of poo dropped by farmers and spread about by their tractors, I've never heard of any of it being cleaned up.


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## compo (7 Sep 2012)

He's a farmer. You have no chance unless he kills someone. They are like the pikies round here, untouchable.


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## The Brewer (7 Sep 2012)

Wasn't there a case a few years back where the mess caused a RTA. Farmer got found responsible and fined.


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## byegad (7 Sep 2012)

We've had this for months, the farmers seem to do nothing but cart poo around! Next it will be Hawthorn caltrops scattered all over the roads. Then they complain when someone parks in their field entrances.


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## nathanicola (7 Sep 2012)

But if a farmer has to go in and out of a muddy field 10 times in a day how can he prevent flicking mud from the tyres?


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## sidevalve (7 Sep 2012)

Puts things into perspective a bit, a pile of dog poop the size of a walnut and it's a hanging offence but 50kg of slimy slurry all over the road, a danger to cyclists, m/cyclists and even cars on a bend and nobody says a word.


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## Drago (7 Sep 2012)

Blimey, it's groundhog day! It's an offence to deposit anything on or above a highway that could endanger a user of that highway. Ive visited a couple of farmers over the years to read them their tea leaves over this.


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## Drago (7 Sep 2012)

nathanicola said:


> But if a farmer has to go in and out of a muddy field 10 times in a day how can he prevent flicking mud from the tyres?


That's really the farmers problem, not the road users.


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## Peowpeowpeowlasers (7 Sep 2012)

You need to phone either your local council or the highways agency, depending on who maintains the road. Farmers aren't allowed to leave shoot all over the road, although some leeway is required as moving shoot around is part of their job.


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## Herbie (7 Sep 2012)

Accy cyclist said:


> I saw it this morning on my way to work. Fortunately i was driving so i didn't have to cycle through it. A stretch of a cycle lane that's on one of my favourite routes is covered in thick cow muck. It startes at one gate/entrance to a field and ends at another, about a mile long. There's no way that a bike could move safely along that stretch of road, all because farmer boy couldn't be bothered to clean up after himself. He's done this in the past, but not to such an extent.
> Is he supposed to clean this mess up, and if so who do i contact?


 
I find this kinda thing farmers do very objectionable too.It happens a lot where i live.I wonder why they get off with it...I'm sure if any one of us joe public chaps dumped shoot and mud on to public roads we'd get reprimanded and rightly so...it stinks


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## Crankarm (8 Sep 2012)

nathanicola said:


> But if a farmer has to go in and out of a muddy field 10 times in a day how can he prevent flicking mud from the tyres?


 
That's just bullsh1t. They should clean their tyres with high pressure jet wash as they have to do in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Singapore.


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## sgtjiggy (8 Sep 2012)

I live in a city with an enormous beef processing plant; we also have several feed lots around town. On just about every curve on every major highway coming into town there is a dried or wet trail of cow s**t! Bicycle and motorcyclist have to be extremely careful. We call the trailers used to haul cattle "bull racks". It its also illegal for them to allow for the s**t to hit the road surface. It its usually caused when the the traps are over flowing or the truck driver leaves them open intentionally so he doesn't have to clean them out after delivering his cargo. I hate it. Its disgusting and unsanitary. I don't mind writing tickets for this offense.


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## nathanicola (8 Sep 2012)

Dont tar all farmers with the same brush though, i am one myself and i hate it when i leave mud on the road, i cycle too so i know all about it, my house is in the village and i hate it when there is a trail of mud past my gate but i know that sometimes it cant be avoided. You cant stand in a gate to a field pressure washing tyres as the trailers come out it would make the situation worse. In a few weeks the maize will be harvested, thousands of tons in two days the village roads will be covered in flicks of mud and sprinkled with chopped maize nobody complains because they have lived with it for ever, i'm not an arrogant ba**ard i hate it when it happens but sometimes its unavoidable.We allways put mud on road signs up and yes i do scraped big lumps up with a shovel. The comment about calling the police or council, when they arrive they just say make sure you got signs up and scrape the road up at the end of the day.


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## Chris H (8 Sep 2012)

You want to try this issue out on a motorbike !!!!!!!!!!!

Went up to Settle for the weekend last night loads of mud on the roads around this bit of North Yorkshire I think the farmers should do more and to be fair they had signs out and in a couple of places peeps in Hi Vis giving warning,


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## Drago (8 Sep 2012)

I always Remind them it is an offence, and if I have to speak to them a 2nd time I'll deal with them for it.

I appreciate all the difficulties, but that's the farmers problem to sort, not the road users problem to endure. If I were really nasty most of the farmers round these parts would have no driving licences at all, what with all the document offences, unregistered vehicles, trailers with no lighting or reg plate, etc. I'm sure you're a conscientious chappie, but from someone who's perspective is the enforcement side of the fence I can confirm you are very much in a minority. Most farmers I've dealt with professionally, and all the farmers I see round my village treat the road traffic act with utter contempt.


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## sidevalve (8 Sep 2012)

As in the OP I don't think the chief problem is the mud, you can sort of expect that near a farm gate and, although a problem which should be addressed it dries fairly fast.
The real problem is the great dollops of sticky stinking slurry that drop out of the often barely useable trailers and leaky sided trucks that "skins" over fast but remains almost liquid and slippery as h-ll underneath.
After all farmers are always saying "farming is an industry", well fair enough, all other industry has to clean up it's mess [some do it better than others I admit but at least they have to try] and so should they.


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## Drago (8 Sep 2012)

Do farmers really get as much sex as the ones in Emmerdale?


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## SomethingLikeThat (8 Sep 2012)

They probably don't have the time.


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## compo (8 Sep 2012)

Drago said:


> Do farmers really get as much sex as the ones in Emmerdale?


 
Only on sheep farms.


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## nathanicola (8 Sep 2012)

Drago said:


> Do farmers really get as much sex as the ones in Emmerdale?


 Sex on Emerdale? i must start watching.


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## nathanicola (8 Sep 2012)

Drago said:


> I always Remind them it is an offence, and if I have to speak to them a 2nd time I'll deal with them for it.
> 
> I appreciate all the difficulties, but that's the farmers problem to sort, not the road users problem to endure. If I were really nasty most of the farmers round these parts would have no driving licences at all, what with all the document offences, unregistered vehicles, trailers with no lighting or reg plate, etc. I'm sure you're a conscientious chappie, but from someone who's perspective is the enforcement side of the fence I can confirm you are very much in a minority. Most farmers I've dealt with professionally, and all the farmers I see round my village treat the road traffic act with utter contempt.


 Oooohhhhh youre one of those. Road traffic act?? just because the brakes dont work on the tractor its fine i can just drop the loader to stop me, and the lights were working fine when i left home.


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## Chris S (8 Sep 2012)

Have you ever seen a farmer on a bike?


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## Norm (8 Sep 2012)

Chris S said:


> Have you ever seen a farmer on a bike?


Well, there's at least two on this thread.


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## byegad (8 Sep 2012)

nathanicola said:


> But if a farmer has to go in and out of a muddy field 10 times in a day how can he prevent flicking mud from the tyres?


Yes but he should clean it up after he's finished, he has a tractor and it will run a variety of machines to clear crap off the road. They too idle to do it but if it causes an accident you'd be able to sue them. As with many other things in life it may be the law but nobody enforces it.


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## nathanicola (8 Sep 2012)

[QUOTE 2029369, member: 9609"]I think if they are coming out of a field onto an "A" road then yes. However if it is a seldom used minor road then may be not, we do have to live and let live. I just wish they would use more obvious warning signs - rather than the usual "Mud on Road" written with a felt tip pen on the inside of a cornflakes packet and then stuck in the hedge.[/quote]


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## 4F (8 Sep 2012)

This is such a funny thread, townies in surprise that there might be a bit of mud in the countryside shock.....


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## sidevalve (8 Sep 2012)

4F said:


> This is such a funny thread, townies in surprise that there might be a bit of mud in the countryside shock.....


 I live in the county and I still fail to see why I should have to risk life and limb 'cos some one can't be bothered to clean up after himself. After all if you dropped a load of broken glass in his cow field you'd be lucky not to get a shotgun up your bottom and it works both ways. The happy days of "old farmer Giles and his corncob pipe" are long gone and slurry is not mud, in the wrong place it is a nasty and sometimes dangerous by product of a modern and very mechanised industry.


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## byegad (8 Sep 2012)

4F said:


> This is such a funny thread, townies in surprise that there might be a bit of mud in the countryside shock.....


 
I'm not a townie which accounts for something like 80% of all my punctures happening in the two periods of the year the muck kickers 'trim' their hedges with a flail which throws the debris right across the road. I really think they need to clear it up. I got home one day with my right side caked in cow shoot after a stream of oncoming traffic passed me in one of these areas. Not at all pleasant.


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## 4F (8 Sep 2012)

sidevalve said:


> I live in the county and I still fail to see why I should have to risk life and limb 'cos some one can't be bothered to clean up after himself..


Life and limb, lol stop being so dramatic. If you fear that you are in that much danger then you are clearly riding too fast for the conditions.


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## albion (8 Sep 2012)

I'm convinced there is many a serious accident caused by farmers mud on the roads.

I also recall on a walking route, a lake of cow muck strategically placed near the stile.
Lesser minded souls might be cack handed and make sure they damage his fencing.


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## 4F (8 Sep 2012)

byegad said:


> I'm not a townie which accounts for something like 80% of all my punctures happening in the two periods of the year the muck kickers 'trim' their hedges with a flail which throws the debris right across the road. I really think they need to clear it up. I got home one day with my right side caked in cow s*** after a stream of oncoming traffic passed me in one of these areas. Not at all pleasant.


Hedge trimmings I agree with you.


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## byegad (8 Sep 2012)

Put it this way. If a steel works dropped slag all over the adjacent road there would be hell to pay.


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## compo (8 Sep 2012)

byegad said:


> Put it this way. If a steel works dropped slag all over the adjacent road there would be hell to pay.


 
I thought they did and named it Port Talbot.


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## Drago (8 Sep 2012)

4F said:


> Life and limb, lol stop being so dramatic. If you fear that you are in that much danger then you are clearly riding too fast for the conditions.


The 'conditions' being muck sprinkled liberally across the highway?


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## Drago (8 Sep 2012)

4F said:


> This is such a funny thread, townies in surprise that there might be a bit of mud in the countryside shock.....


I live in the countryside, but in England, not Bangladesh. In Blighty it's normal not to have mud on the road wherever you are.


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## 4F (8 Sep 2012)

Drago said:


> I live in the countryside, but in England, not Bangladesh. In Blighty it's normal not to have mud on the road wherever you are.


countryside equals fields equals mud. I would stick to towns if I were you


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## Drago (8 Sep 2012)

Road equals tarmac equals vehicles.

Not mud.


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## Peowpeowpeowlasers (9 Sep 2012)

I don't know about anyone else but when I'm riding the C and B roads through the countryside, mud, muck, sand, dirt and detritus is something I expect to see.

I've never been "surprised" by a pile of muck in the road. If some of you are, you're clearly riding too fast for the conditions. Slow down.

Also, many of these lanes wouldn't exist were it not for farms.


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## Boris Bajic (10 Sep 2012)

I'm not sure who is being serious on this thread. I suspect few people are.

Cows poo. They are made of beef (yum) and they produce milk (yum). But they poo.

If (as mentioned above) a steel firm drops slag on the road, it is a matter of negligence or similar.

If cows are moved from one field to another, they are likely to poo. If they cross or travel along a highway, they are likely to poo.

It is slippery when fresh and it can cause danger if road users lose control by hitting it too fast.

Livestock have been using the roads since the dawn of civilisation. Many of today's highways were originally paths used by drovers and similar.

It must have been quite galling for farmers to have the peace and quiet of their livestock paths interrupted by cyclists and motorists coming along a century or so ago and metalling them and then whipping along them at speeds over 20 mph.

It makes me a little sad to think that there are people out there ready to call the Highways Agency because of cow poo on a cycle lane.

Ought they to be called when it rains, too?

I've ridden through fresh cow pats on tarmac and it does concentrate the mind... but these things are to be expected where there are farms.

I do hope that this was a comedy thread and I've made myself look foolish by appearing to take it seriously.

At one level, it sounds a little like the rants one hears from motorists who think it's dangerous to allow slow, dawdling cyclists on the road.


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## Accy cyclist (23 Sep 2012)

Good news! The cowmuck has either been washed or swept away.
Bad news! The same farmer has been hedgerow cutting. Yes you've guessed it, thorns all over the cycle lane...and he has a field a mile away from the lane that has a slurry mound, with the stinking brown stuff forming a little river across the road!


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## albion (23 Sep 2012)

So 'the slurry mounds of Acrrington' is it?


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## Crankarm (23 Sep 2012)

Accy cyclist said:


> Good news! The cowmuck has either been washed or swept away.
> Bad news! The same farmer has been hedgerow cutting. Yes you've guessed it, thorns all over the cycle lane...and he has a field a mile away from the lane that has a slurry mound, with the stinking brown stuff forming a little river across the road!


 
Do you have muckguards on your bike? And do you drink from your bottles ?


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## mcshroom (23 Sep 2012)

There's mud and there's mud though. This is part of my commute home, and part of NCN 72. 







The local farmer uses the tunnel to move cattle between fields on either side of the tunnel and the result is a slick of slurry on the track which can be over 3cm deep accross the entire carriageway (looking at my tyres afterwards - the photo is on one of it's better days), gets waterlogged when it rains, and often extends all the way through the tunnel (and runs for 50m behind the camera to the other field gate. It is extremely slippery and I don't really find leaving a cycle path like this acceptable.

This farmer also has form for leaving gates open across the cycle way further down as well so I suspect they aren't particularly happy about having a cycle path through their (rented) land.


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## trampyjoe (24 Sep 2012)

compo said:


> He's a farmer. You have no chance unless he kills someone. They are like the pikies round here, untouchable.


just found this thread and had to giggle at your post... I worked on a farm near Harlow, in fact it was many farms all owned by the same farmer.


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## trampyjoe (24 Sep 2012)

NCNs going along farm tracks and the farmer has the balls to drive his cattle along it?! what is the world coming too?!!


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## Accy cyclist (24 Sep 2012)

Crankarm said:


> Do you have muckguards on your bike? And do you drink from your bottles ?


 


Mudguards aren't 100% mud free guaranteed, and no i don't drink from them. I only carry bottles to compliment the look of my bike.


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## Linford (24 Sep 2012)

There is a public road running through the middle of a farmyard on the top of a hill neart my town. I think it is disgusting that there is muck on it where they bring their farm vehicles from one side of the farm yard to another.

They should be made to jet wash the road every time they do this...or walk across it in their muddy wellies.

What even next ??????????

EDIT - how about a portable jet wash with a pipe down the back of each leg and a nozzle just behind the boot. They can clean the road as they walk around their farmyard


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## 400bhp (24 Sep 2012)

mcshroom said:


> There's mud and there's mud though. This is part of my commute home, and part of NCN 72.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


 
That looks like Seascale? I remember that tunnel well! The only muddy place on the route between Ravenglass and Whitahaven


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## GBC (24 Sep 2012)

I had a thoroughly enjoyable run on Saturday, the return leg of which involved the unclassified roads between Darvel and Eaglesham. Virtually every farm, and there were many, that I passed had muck on the road to some extent, some a lot worse than others, but the work was ongoing and the driver of each of the tractors I encountered was courteous and gave me as much road room as possible. For my part, I slowed right down when the mud was significant.
Yes, my bike and I were both manky when I got home, but I can't really get excited about it. Although I live in a city now, that wasn't always the case and I'm aware that farmers have to work according to the weather rather than the clock, so often, and particularly with the weather this year, they have a very limited window of opportunity to get various tasks done. As others have mentioned here, it simply would not be practical for them to clean as they go, and in the short term, would probably make things worse.
Live and let live.


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## RaRa (24 Sep 2012)

Does no one else feel a teeny bit sad that we seem to have got so far away from the reality of farming and producing food that we are complaining about mud in farm yards and on country roads?

P.S. If this was a humerous thread then i'll take it back and acknowledge that I'm a gullible fool!


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## ColinJ (24 Sep 2012)

There is a right hand bend on the route of the Manchester 100 event, just before a farm entrance, and pretty much every time I rode the event there was a lot of slurry on the road. The first time I encountered it, I slid sideways for about 10 yards but managed to regain control. After that, I always took it easy going into that bend. I followed a big group one year and several riders went down hard ahead of me (they were too far ahead to hear my warning shout). One year, a rider broke his pelvis (or was it hip?) falling there. I don't remember ever seeing any warning signs or the event organisers doing anything about it either.


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## Davidc (24 Sep 2012)

Poo + mud is a fact of life on country roads. Perhaps it shouldn't be, but it is.

I've lived in or near the countryside nearly all my adult life and the only change is in the proportions. When in East Anglia it was mainly mud, in parts of the West it's mainly poo.

There's a need to allow for it when riding a bike, motor bike, driving a car, or even walking. It has to be washed off quickly because it sticks hard and dries like concrete.

Not impressed by the pictures. The mud near the bridge looks pretty mild compared to round here, and if Sustrans put their NCNs through fields then find another route. There are plenty of sections of NCNs 3 and 33 near here which are impassable to 99% of cyclists. (And a few underwater today).

I'm not excusing leaving roads in a mess, just saying it's one of those things you have to live with.

Bet it was dropped by the cows not the farmer anyway.


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## Paul J (24 Sep 2012)

nathanicola said:


> Dont tar all farmers with the same brush though, i am one myself and i hate it when i leave mud on the road, i cycle too so i know all about it, my house is in the village and i hate it when there is a trail of mud past my gate but i know that sometimes it cant be avoided. You cant stand in a gate to a field pressure washing tyres as the trailers come out it would make the situation worse. In a few weeks the maize will be harvested, thousands of tons in two days the village roads will be covered in flicks of mud and sprinkled with chopped maize nobody complains because they have lived with it for ever, i'm not an arrogant ba**ard i hate it when it happens but sometimes its unavoidable.We allways put mud on road signs up and yes i do scraped big lumps up with a shovel. The comment about calling the police or council, when they arrive they just say make sure you got signs up and scrape the road up at the end of the day.


 
Typical answer from a farmer basically you'll clean it up when you decide and if you can be arsed.


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## BikeLiker (24 Sep 2012)

nathanicola said:


> But if a farmer has to go in and out of a muddy field 10 times in a day how can he prevent flicking mud from the tyres?


Same as construction sites do - have a wheel wash at the site entrance - or does running certain businesses trump the needs of all other road users?


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## byegad (24 Sep 2012)

A red herring from Boris here.

It's not small pats left by a herd being moved along or across a road. Its is big lumps and areas of foul liquid spilling from trailer loads in quantities that If I owned a large garden I'd be hiring a trailer to take home for me and to sell to all of our neighbours.


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## Glow worm (24 Sep 2012)

The Brewer said:


> Wasn't there a case a few years back where the mess caused a RTA. Farmer got found responsible and fined.


 
There was this case from near Halesworth in Suffolk back in 2002. The farmer was not charged.

I live in rural area and can honestly say I've never been the slightest bit bothered about mud or cow $hit on the roads. If it's there I just slow down or try to go around it. It's the country after all and one of the things I expect to happen here. We'd soon start moaning if there was no bread or sugar on the shelves, or beef and bacon down the butchers!


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## psmiffy (24 Sep 2012)

BikeLiker said:


> Same as construction sites do - have a wheel wash at the site entrance - or does running certain businesses trump the needs of all other road users?


ditto - as for the time argument - it does not take two minutes to ring up and get a road sweeper to come out and make a couple of passes - costs - same as any other business - part and parcel of being in business - concentrates the mind towards taking measures to mitigate the problem - whilst it is understandable that farming operations may leave roads in a dirty state there is no real excuse for it

Ring the Local Authority or better still report it online so that it is documented properly - most LAs have a "street doctor" reporting system and performance indicators that they have to achieve


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## Glow worm (24 Sep 2012)

Chris S said:


> Have you ever seen a farmer on a bike?


 
This bloke hasn't!


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## 4F (24 Sep 2012)

psmiffy said:


> whilst it is understandable that farming operations may leave roads in a dirty state there is no real excuse for it


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## T.M.H.N.E.T (24 Sep 2012)

Just had to post this.

View: http://youtu.be/2REOvo3z66k


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## 4F (24 Sep 2012)

T.M.H.N.E.T said:


> Just had to post this.


 
LOL grass cutting to the theme tune of "Last of the Mohicans"


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## Linford (24 Sep 2012)

psmiffy said:


> ditto - as for the time argument - it does not take two minutes to ring up and get a road sweeper to come out and make a couple of passes - costs - same as any other business - part and parcel of being in business - concentrates the mind towards taking measures to mitigate the problem - whilst it is understandable that farming operations may leave roads in a dirty state there is no real excuse for it
> 
> Ring the Local Authority or better still report it online so that it is documented properly - most LAs have a "street doctor" reporting system and performance indicators that they have to achieve


 
Street sweepers are a waste of time.

I have to use a road to get into work which serves the local tip. This is a private operation which is licensed to deal with the waste from the local big town, and in addition to this takes all sorts of waste from other area's which is brought in by huge 44 tonne hgv's.

When it is dry, it isn't a problem, when it rains - despite the vehicles having to go through a wash bay area before leaving the tip site, the road which is about a mile to the nearest main road turns into a brown mess which is I'd say worse than what most farmers drag out of the fields.

The sweepers just stir it up twice a day and don't actually get rid of it from the road surface. That is the primary reason why I don't commute on my m/cycle in the winter. I'd not put a nice roadie down there either.


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## Paul J (24 Sep 2012)

Glow worm said:


> There was this case from near Halesworth in Suffolk back in 2002. The farmer was not charged.
> 
> I live in rural area and can honestly say I've never been the slightest bit bothered about mud or cow $hit on the roads. If it's there I just slow down or try to go around it. It's the country after all and one of the things I expect to happen here. We'd soon start moaning if there was no bread or sugar on the shelves, or beef and bacon down the butchers!


 
I think your missing the point it's not a pile of shoot, rather slurry across the road or track thats the problem.


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## trampyjoe (24 Sep 2012)

Paul J said:


> I think your missing the point it's not a pile of s***, rather slurry across the road or track thats the problem.


Slurry is shoot ... in a watery state.

Sorry but facts is facts.


Just go round it (or through it, as it's slighty denser than water it makes some impressive noises!)


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## Peowpeowpeowlasers (24 Sep 2012)

I wonder, when it rains, do some of you go and burn a church down?


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## nathanicola (24 Sep 2012)

At least there are a few on here that are in touch with the countryside, people these days seem to be losing the connection between farming, food, sh!t and mud. The countryside these days is for fun and pastimes, food and milk come from the supermarket and its allmost a neusance having to spend hard earned cash on food. Without the farmers there is no countryside it is them that have formed it to the way we know today.Perhaps we should go back just a few decades when all people worried about was earning enough to put food on the table that week. Its a fact that there are only two days worth of food in the supermarkets and the country is only three days away from full scale riots if it ran out. Next time you sit down and enjoy a meal just think is that bit of sh!t or mud really that bad. Theres just this big hater thing between people with a non farming conection and farmers. A bit like the hunting ban had nothing to do with fox's but thats another topic that i wont participate in. Now i'm off to read proper threads about cycling cuz some city slickers are gettin on my t!ts.


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## Paul J (24 Sep 2012)

Ahh farmers and their right to the countryside or should I say poor husbandry and pesticide use. Lets not forget how farming has changed over the decades for the worse, So please do not think because you are a farmer you have the right to preach about the countryside because somebody disagrees with practices.

Maybe as a farmer you like smelling of shoot? Some of us actually prefer not to stink of animal slurry.


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## 4F (24 Sep 2012)

Best stay in the city then.


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## snorri (24 Sep 2012)

I can't remember, as a cyclist, ever feeling endangered or inconvenienced by cow dung on the roads, or mud off agricultural vehicles. Certainly I have seen it now and again, but much less than in the past.


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## Glow worm (24 Sep 2012)

I think that on balance most farmers care deeply for the environment and where realistically possible, manage their land sympathetically. Most of the arable land around here is under Environmental Stewardship schemes wherby stuff like new hedges are now being planted again as well as wider margins around fields and along water courses being left uncropped to create more space for wildlife as well as protecting water courses. Much of this is done voluntarily as well as through such programmes. Some schemes also create permissive public access too. 

All is not perfect of course, but the suggestion that all farmers are evil, slurry spilling so and so's is frankly a myth.

Perhaps farmer's biggest problem in recent years has been that of poor communication with the public leading to a bit of an image problem. Farming can be a lonely, isolated job of course and tends not to attract many extroverts with brilliant PR skills. This has meant that the public no longer have much of an understanding of farming and why things are how they are. But hopefully stuff like the brilliant annual Open Farm Sunday and more farms like this one welcoming folk to see what's on the farm will help change this.


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## Linford (25 Sep 2012)

Glow worm said:


> Perhaps farmer's biggest problem in recent years has been that of poor communication with the public leading to a bit of an image problem. Farming can be a lonely, isolated job of course and tends not to attract many extroverts with brilliant PR skills. This has meant that the public no longer have much of an understanding of farming and why things are how they are. But hopefully stuff like the brilliant annual Open Farm Sunday and more farms like this one welcoming folk to see what's on the farm will help change this.


 

The biggest problem isn't of farmers changing their practices, but ofthe perception of the people who don't confront it every day because they live in sanitised pre packaged bubbles and the countryside is a place between their home and another sanitised bubble, or a large playground where one goes at the weekend to play with ones toys.


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## snorri (25 Sep 2012)

Linford said:


> y because they live in sanitised pre packaged bubbles .


After spending a few days in large conurbations just recently, I find it difficult to think of them as "sanitised pre packaged bubbles".


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## ColinJ (25 Sep 2012)

There is one farm that I ride past on a regular basis and the road almost always has fresh or dried cow pats on it because the fields that the cows graze in are across the road from the milking sheds. Fair enough. It is a long, straight road and you can see road conditions from a long way off. (Would be tricky in fog, but speeds should be lower then.)

The road in Cheshire that I referred to above is different ... To keep a stretch of road permanently lethally slippery just round a tight bend and not even bother to put up warning signs is grossly negligent. If the farmer's tractor were leaking oil all over the road and he left it there for years at a time, then he would rightly be done for it. What's the difference?


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## GBC (25 Sep 2012)

ColinJ said:


> The road in Cheshire that I referred to above is different ... To keep a stretch of road permanently lethally slippery just round a tight bend and not even bother to put up warning signs is grossly negligent. If the farmer's tractor were leaking oil all over the road and he left it there for years at a time, then he would rightly be done for it. What's the difference?


 
I'm certainly very sorry to hear of any cyclists being injured at any time, but if the hazard is there as much as it seems to be, the organisers may want to re-visit their risk assessment.


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## ColinJ (25 Sep 2012)

GBC said:


> I'm certainly very sorry to hear of any cyclists being injured at any time, but if the hazard is there as much as it seems to be, the organisers may want to re-visit their risk assessment.


Yes, the fact that the risk was there every year but the event organisers did nothing about it _does_ reflect badly on them.

The fact that the farmer created the risk yet did nothing (effective) to clean it up or warn road users of the hazard reflects badly on him/her.


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## Glow worm (25 Sep 2012)

ColinJ said:


> The fact that the farmer created the risk yet did nothing (effective) to clean it up or warn road users of the hazard reflects badly on him/her.


 
Maybe the best way would simply be to go and have a friendly chat with the guy. It could be he's just unaware of any problem. Failing that, you could contact the Parish Clerk. There's most likely people on the Parish Council who will know the farmer well or certainly know someone who does. They'll then be able to have a quiet word with the guy and if it comes from someone he knows well in his community, he may be more inclined to react positively.


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## ColinJ (25 Sep 2012)

Glow worm said:


> Maybe the best way would simply be to go and have a friendly chat with the guy. It could be he's just unaware of any problem. Failing that, you could contact the Parish Clerk. There's most likely people on the Parish Council who will know the farmer well or certainly know someone who does. They'll then be able to have a quiet word with the guy and if it comes from someone he knows well in his community, he may be more inclined to react positively.


It's about 40 miles from here on the other side of Manchester so I'll leave that for a local to do. In fact, I can't actually remember exactly where the farm is, though I'd recognise the bend if I ever ride the M100 route again. If I have an hour or two to spare some time, I might Streetview my way round until I spot the bend in question. (If so, it would be interesting to see if the road is still filthy - it is about 7 years since I last rode the event.)

The farmer cannot be unaware of the mounting casualty list outside the farm entrance, nor of the fact that the road surface is very slippery! I was amazed that the police (apparently) hadn't had a word with him.


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## Glow worm (25 Sep 2012)

ColinJ said:


> It's about 40 miles from here on the other side of Manchester so I'll leave that for a local to do. In fact, I can't actually remember exactly where the farm is, though I'd recognise the bend if I ever ride the M100 route again. If I have an hour or two to spare some time, I might Streetview my way round until I spot the bend in question. (If so, it would be interesting to see if the road is still filthy - it is about 7 years since I last rode the event.)
> 
> The farmer cannot be unaware of the mounting casualty list outside the farm entrance, nor of the fact that the road surface is very slippery! I was amazed that the police (apparently) hadn't had a word with him.


 
Fair do's. Anyway what are you doing on here today, aren't you underwater over there yet again ?!


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## ColinJ (25 Sep 2012)

Glow worm said:


> Fair do's. Anyway what are you doing on here today, aren't you underwater over there yet again ?!


Ha ha - everyone is asking me that! I am about 300 metres from where the flood waters reach and about 3 metres higher than the highest ever highwater mark so it would have to be a humungous flood stretching across the whole valley to reach my house. I'm (pretty much) housebound at the moment so I'm not able to walk those 300 metres to give you a photo-report!


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## Glow worm (25 Sep 2012)

ColinJ said:


> Ha ha - everyone is asking me that! I am about 300 metres from where the flood waters reach and about 3 metres higher than the highest ever highwater mark so it would have to be a humungous flood stretching across the whole valley to reach my house. I'm (pretty much) housebound at the moment so I'm not able to walk those 300 metres to give you a photo-report!


 
Blimey sorry to hear that. Hope you are more mobile again soon (and the rain stops!)


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## Accy cyclist (28 Oct 2012)

He did it again yesterday. I was driving on the same road when i saw, and smelt his horrible muck tank! I later went for a ride on that road and he's really covered it this time. Some might say that avoiding the road is the sensible thing to do but it's a main road that links two towns, the alternative route would add about 3 or 4 miles.
Anyway i decided to avoid the cycle lane instead only to be constantly beeped by motorists who have no idea of the problem that this anti-social ~@#! is causing us cyclists! It was dry yesterday so it wasn't too bad, but with today's heavy rain anyone using that cycle lane will end up splattered with cow muck!!


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