# How much damage can one do walking on crop fields?



## Wiz201 (Jun 13, 2012)

I admit, I didn't know the area, I was just taking Kasa out for a ten minute walk in the rain on Friday after some indoor training, and I thought I'd just chuck the toy for her in the field just across the small road rather than crossing the big main road. Its a field with plant crop in it, but I just stayed in the bare area around the entrance to the field as I hadn't bothered to put my walking boots on. Well, man with collie suddenly appears on this path above the field (I had no idea how to get onto this path) and he shouts, you shouldn't be walking on crop fields. How much damage could I do anyway?


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## NoSpecialFeaturesHere (Nov 23, 2008)

You can't damage it. Tractors go trundling over it all the time lol, you can't do more damage than them. It's probably just because it's private property or it could have been sprayed with something maybe. Farmers tend to be possessive of their land, oo-arr.

*Edited to add: When I wrote this yesterday I intended it to be taken tongue-in-cheek, and I am honestly very sorry for any offence it caused. Hand on heart. Lesson learned. xx*


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## Spirited (May 20, 2013)

Wiz201 said:


> I admit, I didn't know the area, I was just taking Kasa out for a ten minute walk in the rain on Friday after some indoor training, and I thought I'd just chuck the toy for her in the field just across the small road rather than crossing the big main road. Its a field with plant crop in it, but I just stayed in the bare area around the entrance to the field as I hadn't bothered to put my walking boots on. Well, man with collie suddenly appears on this path above the field (I had no idea how to get onto this path) and he shouts, you shouldn't be walking on crop fields. *How much damage could I do anyway?*


 Oh only kill the plants you step on or prevent them from growing by stomping them too far down. 
When a person puts that much effort into working the soil and planting their crops Id say he was being rather polite by only saying what was said.


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## Fleur (Jul 19, 2008)

you as an individual might not do much if any - but standing, walking, trampling on plants could kill/damage them and stop them growing - but think if 10 people walked along the edge of that field or maybe 20 or 30 or more them the accumalitive damage could be considerable.
Most fields are private property - so if there is no footpath or you don't have the farmers permission I wouldn't go in there.


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## MontyMaude (Feb 23, 2012)

NoSpecialFeaturesHere said:


> You can't damage it. Tractors go trundling over it all the time lol, you can't do more damage than them. It's probably just because it's private property or it could have been sprayed with something maybe. Farmers tend to be possessive of their land, oo-arr.


Farmers tend to be protective of their land because it's their livelihood, it the same as someone stomping on your freshly planted allotment or garden and it just plan rude and bad manners, if it's a crop field they tend to have tractor runs on it so they don't go over the planting.


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## cinnamontoast (Oct 24, 2010)

Quite right, if you stomped on my plants in my garden, I'd be very unhappy. Apart from that, if you go off the path, you're trespassing (except in Scotland) plus it's only manners not to destroy someone's hard work. 

Sorry, annoys me, the amount of ignorant people who set up picnics in the horse fields, let their dogs run wild etc, leave broken bottles. Drove me mad. I'm not saying you do this, OP!


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## NoSpecialFeaturesHere (Nov 23, 2008)

Sorry if I sounded disrespectful but the farmers I know are loaded. They have more money to spend on a combine harvester than I could make in my entire life.

I agree with you though, people shouldn't trespass.


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## gem88 (Jun 2, 2012)

i grew up round a farm, nothin irritated the farmer more than people trapsing through his fields. dont forget its their living and your food you're walking on. 
1 person cant do a huge amount of damage but if more people do it, it starts costing.

if i walk near the fields the dogs arent allowed on the crops nor is C


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## MontyMaude (Feb 23, 2012)

NoSpecialFeaturesHere said:


> Sorry if I sounded disrespectful but the farmers I know are loaded. They have more money to spend on a combine harvester than I could make in my entire life.
> 
> I agree with you though, people shouldn't trespass.


Oh well if their loaded then that's ok then


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## 8tansox (Jan 29, 2010)

Arrrrrgggghhhhh! Farmers need people like this, like they need a hole in their head! What on earth gives you the right to trespass on other people's fields and land? 

Personally I'd have said a lot more. Irrespective of how much dosh they have (that's none of your business either ) they have to work hard for their living. So, please respect farmers and don't walk on their land.:mad2::mad2:

If this is a wind-up, I've bitten, again!


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## Spirited (May 20, 2013)

NoSpecialFeaturesHere said:


> Sorry if I sounded disrespectful but the farmers I know are loaded. They have more money to spend on a combine harvester than I could make in my entire life.
> 
> I agree with you though, people shouldn't trespass.


You might think they are loaded but I bet if you saw their books youd think otherwise. You dont think they pay cash for everything do you? Most are mortgaged to their eyeballs. (at least here in the US anyway. Im not talking about the conglomerates just the farmers.)


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## MissShelley (May 9, 2010)

NoSpecialFeaturesHere said:


> Sorry if I sounded disrespectful but the farmers I know are loaded. They have more money to spend on a combine harvester than I could make in my entire life.


So what if they are, no excuse for trespassing on their land

Farmers work damn hard for what they have, much harder than anyone else I know, and their livelihood could be gone or damaged in an instant, due to disease, weather other animals and worst of all people traipsing over their fields..


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## tinaK (Jun 12, 2010)

NoSpecialFeaturesHere said:


> Sorry if I sounded disrespectful but the farmers I know are loaded. They have more money to spend on a combine harvester than I could make in my entire life.


I grew up on a farm.My family are farmers.. and no we weren't loaded.

We were mainly an arable farm (crops) with a few animals. and it's bloody hard work. How can we gather our crops without a combine ? We were out there all weathers.

It's not an easy living at all


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## GoldenShadow (Jun 15, 2009)

NoSpecialFeaturesHere said:


> You can't damage it. Tractors go trundling over it all the time lol, you can't do more damage than them. It's probably just because it's private property or it could have been sprayed with something maybe. Farmers tend to be possessive of their land, oo-arr.


Whilst the farmers I know generally aren't strapped for cash, it's because they work 16 hour days and have their wives out in the tractors after they've done their usual 9-5 too..! I loathe people who walk through crop. Farmers lose enough to the weather; they shouldn't have to deal with disrespectful people trespassing on their land (which is what it is if you go through a crop field that is not following a footpath on England).


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## NoSpecialFeaturesHere (Nov 23, 2008)

Lol, I feel horrible now. I was only being jokey in my first reply, but I'm a bit scared of you guys now. The farmers I know are not nice people and they are definitely rich. But that's not the point, I know, and I do understand I should not tar them all with the same brush. I obviously didn't realise this would be a touchy subject or I would have kept my trap shut, honestly, my apologies. xx


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## Guest (May 27, 2013)

NoSpecialFeaturesHere said:


> You can't damage it. Tractors go trundling over it all the time lol, you can't do more damage than them. It's probably just because it's private property or it could have been sprayed with something maybe. Farmers tend to be possessive of their land, oo-arr.












Words fail me...


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## gem88 (Jun 2, 2012)

NoSpecialFeaturesHere said:


> You can't damage it. Tractors go trundling over it all the time lol, you can't do more damage than them. It's probably just because it's private property or it could have been sprayed with something maybe. Farmers tend to be possessive of their land, oo-arr.


thats not true. have u never noticed the lines through the fields? funnily enough they are where the tractor goes so they dont damage the crops



NoSpecialFeaturesHere said:


> Sorry if I sounded disrespectful but the farmers I know are loaded. They have more money to spend on a combine harvester than I could make in my entire life.
> 
> I agree with you though, people shouldn't trespass.


how many farmers have you known and known their finances? not that its any of your business!!
most farmers are land rich and cash poor. most of the time they have the equipment they need because of loans


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## hazel pritchard (Jun 28, 2009)

If some say its ok to walk over a farmers crops just think if you had spent money on a nice garden with plants growing how would you feel if people came along and trampled over them, after you had paid money for them and time planting them????? and maybe your livlihood depended on what you had planted,
I dont allow my dogs on fields with crops in it for the reasons above , in my view its called respecting other peoples properties


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## tinaK (Jun 12, 2010)

NoSpecialFeaturesHere said:


> Lol, I feel horrible now. I was only being jokey in my first reply, but I'm a bit scared of you guys now. The farmers I know are not nice people and they are definitely rich. But that's not the point, I know, and I do understand I should not tar them all with the same brush. I obviously didn't realise this would be a touchy subject or I would have kept my trap shut, honestly, my apologies. xx


So they are rich cos they've got a combine they need to make a living  How do you know they are rich?


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## NoSpecialFeaturesHere (Nov 23, 2008)

Honestly I understand - I wish I had stayed quiet - I am sorry. Going to crawl under a rock now.

I work for a farmer, and I am judging all farmers on the ones that I know, which is wrong.


Sorry for offending you.


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## blade100 (Aug 24, 2009)

My mum and dad were dairy farmers then my auntie and auncle decided to just do the crop side. I tell you now growing up living on a farm was hard work, every day 7 days a week 4am starts. 
In the summer they are out till midnight trying to get crops in and last year was horrendous as they couldn't get half the crops in due to the wet weather the fields were like ponds.

We also have a few farms where we live and the farmers next door to us are at it all day long.
We are good friends and have there permission to walk around the edge of there crop fields with our gsd.
But they and my family hate people walking over there crops and not sticking to the foot paths.

They have to pay for all the seeds, sprays, fertilisers, labour, tractor and other equipment, disesl,etc. 

So it's nice to be considerate.


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## Jesthar (May 16, 2011)

It's been an awful year for many crop farmers this year I believe, because of all the rain. Too wet to effectively reap and plant last autumn, still too wet to plant at the right time this spring, coldest spring in decades - we had hail here inth M4 corridor last week, for goodness sake!

If I were a farmer I'd be a bit upset if I thought someone was walking about on whatever crops I had managed to put in and had come up. Possibly he might have mistakely thought you have been further in than you had been, but I can understand him being protective.  Not all people are particularly thoughtful on farmland.


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## cinnamontoast (Oct 24, 2010)

Farmers work every hour they can. Many have been destroyed with the weather this year-remember the news, snow, dead lambs etc? Farmers' livings wiped out in a week. Zero crops because the snow came. 

One local farmer has planted crops in a field left fallow for years because he's sick of people walking where they feel like it elsewhere. One part of the field was hay for horses: he was sick of people letting their dogs sh!t everywhere. I would _hate_ to come across that as I made a haynet!


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## MontyMaude (Feb 23, 2012)

NoSpecialFeaturesHere said:


> Honestly I understand - I wish I had stayed quiet - I am sorry. Going to crawl under a rock now.
> 
> I work for a farmer, and I am judging all farmers on the ones that I know, which is wrong.
> 
> Sorry for offending you.


Tis a touchy subject for my seeing my Dad is an ex farmer and generaly quite a nice chap if I do say so myself, Oh and the oo-aarr bit didn't help with the general stereotypical view of farmers


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## redroses2106 (Aug 21, 2011)

NoSpecialFeaturesHere said:


> You can't damage it. Tractors go trundling over it all the time lol, you can't do more damage than them. It's probably just because it's private property or it could have been sprayed with something maybe. Farmers tend to be possessive of their land, oo-arr.


I am sure there are tracks for tractors to follow rather than trudging over all their crops.

it's rude to go walking through a field without permission, there's loads of fields around me and I don't use them. 1 - it's not public land 2- there are all sorts of things sprayed on them and I don't want my dog running through it.


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## cinnamontoast (Oct 24, 2010)

And suicide amongst farmers is rife


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## Supasilvfoxy (Apr 6, 2013)

Unless there was a public footpath running through a field then I wouldn't go into that field ever, it's private property and someone's livelihood and I have no business being there. Even if there is a footpath running through a field I would make sure my dogs were at heel or on a lead, I certainly wouldnt be throwing a ball onto crops.


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## Sleeping_Lion (Mar 19, 2009)

I am intrigued into the thought that all farmers buy the latest combine harvester. The ones I know usually hire them in, they come with operators who come in the moment crops are ready to harvest and work their way round the farms in the area. Sometimes the farmers own a share in the machinery, but not always.


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## click (Dec 23, 2011)

That was a bit of a daft thing to do, but not all farmers are angels.
Near me is a burial mound with an ancient footpath to it.This and two other footpaths have been ploughed and planted (same farmer) 
I told him what for last year when he swore at me for trampling his corn.The paths are clearly marked on up to date Ordnance Survey maps and he knows it.He also strung barbed wire at waist height over a stile.


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## Supasilvfoxy (Apr 6, 2013)

click said:


> That was a bit of a daft thing to do, but not all farmers are angels.
> Near me is a burial mound with an ancient footpath to it.This and two other footpaths have been ploughed and planted (same farmer)
> I told him what for last year when he swore at me for trampling his corn.The paths are clearly marked on up to date Ordnance Survey maps and he knows it.He also strung barbed wire at waist height over a stile.


I've had experience of this too. That farmer did the same with barbed wire across the top of the style and then filled the ditch on the road side with manure, but I have always thought this was a one off as this farmer was well known for being a piece of work regarding footpaths across his land.


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## Wiz201 (Jun 13, 2012)

Oh dear, I've started a touchy subject. Won't do it again :aureola:


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## NoSpecialFeaturesHere (Nov 23, 2008)

I'm sorry, Wiz, I feel terribly guilty. I only replied with the intention of cheering you up, and I didn't realise I'd upset so many people. I've never felt so hated in my life, and over something I should know better about too. Foot in mouth alert. xx


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## tinaK (Jun 12, 2010)

NoSpecialFeaturesHere said:


> I'm sorry, Wiz, I feel terribly guilty. I only replied with the intention of cheering you up, and I didn't realise I'd upset so many people. I've never felt so hated in my life, and over something I should know better about too. Foot in mouth alert. xx


Just cos I might not agree with something you write doesn't mean I hate you, I don't


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## Wiz201 (Jun 13, 2012)

well, I meant I won't walk on fields with no footpaths again, but I suppose the same goes for the threads lol! I'll have to just cross that busy road more often. There is a field across there that we are allowed to walk on:thumbup:


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## click (Dec 23, 2011)

There is a very long footpath diagonally across the fields at Kegworth.And something I've never seen in the countryside before (except National Parks) a red dog muck bin on a post at each end.


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## cinnamontoast (Oct 24, 2010)

Wiz201 said:


> Oh dear, I've started a touchy subject. Won't do it again :aureola:


Don't worry, we've all done it!



NoSpecialFeaturesHere said:


> I'm sorry, Wiz, I feel terribly guilty. I only replied with the intention of cheering you up, and I didn't realise I'd upset so many people. I've never felt so hated in my life, and over something I should know better about too. Foot in mouth alert. xx


Don't be daft, no-one hates you! That's a bit OTT! We're just aware that farmers are having an epically poor year. Unless anyone can claim to be an angel, I think we've all made comments at times that we then rethink later.


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## Sarah1983 (Nov 2, 2011)

I assume one person walking around wouldn't do huge amounts of damage. But throw in a dog or two charging around like I've seen on the farmers fields we walk through and I guess a hell of a lot more damage is done. Especially if a lot of people walk there. The ones we walk through have a nice wide path running through and I stick to that and keep Spen on leash, most don't bother and their dogs are just allowed to tear through the crops, peeing on them, pooing on them and all sorts.


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## MerlinsMum (Aug 2, 2009)

I was brought up in a farming village..... and from an early age, was told that IF you walk in any arable fields, keep closely to the edge and have your dog on a lead.

These days I wouldn't venture into any crop fields without public footpaths, and even then I would try to make sure I caused minimal damage. 

It sometimes goes the other way - a couple of years ago I attempted to follow a public footpath clearly marked on the map and by signposts and stiles, only to find myself dwarfed by mature oilseed rape plants and the pathway almost impossible to negotiate. The plants were sharp and prickly, I was scratched and it must have been uncomfortable for my dog but our route depended on this right of way, in order to get to a place where we could catch the bus home. Not the most pleasant 40 minutes of my life.


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## porps (Jun 23, 2011)

Sarah1983 said:


> I assume one person walking around wouldn't do huge amounts of damage. But throw in a dog or two charging around like I've seen on the farmers fields we walk through and I guess a hell of a lot more damage is done. Especially if a lot of people walk there. The ones we walk through have a nice wide path running through and I stick to that and keep Spen on leash, most don't bother and their dogs are just allowed to tear through the crops, peeing on them, pooing on them and all sorts.


Do wild animals like foxes and badgers and such never enter farmers crop fields? (i honestly dont know im not from the country)?


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## Wiz201 (Jun 13, 2012)

porps said:


> Do wild animals like foxes and badgers and such never enter farmers crop fields? (i honestly dont know im not from the country)?


Nah they're clever dicks and stick to the footpaths :lol:


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## havoc (Dec 8, 2008)

The farmers round me have been extremely friendly towards dog walkers in the past but their attitude is changing. As more and more houses are built and more and more people move out from towns there are more and more dog owners who don't respect the fact it's private land. In towns and cities open land equals public space. It comes as a bit of a shock to some who move to the country to realise that land is owned.


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## kathryn773 (Sep 2, 2008)

porps said:


> Do wild animals like foxes and badgers and such never enter farmers crop fields? (i honestly dont know im not from the country)?


good question

they stick to around the sides of the field, with the cover of the hegde/wall for security.


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## Pixieandbow (Feb 27, 2013)

Unfortunately a lot of people aren't terribly considerate so farmers that were once friendly are running out of patience. Also if a farmer has reason to believe a dog is worrying livestock he may choose to shoot it. I personally feel that running around on someone else's hard work is more than a little inconsiderate. And also, of course badgers and foxes use the land, they are part of the natural habitat...but how many bouncy, boisterous foxes and badgers has anyone seen running amock, chasing balls in the fields? Dogs aren't part of the natural habitat and don't treat fields in the same way


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## DoodlesRule (Jul 7, 2011)

Re your original question "how much damage can I do" judging by how my dog can flatten plants in my garden the answer is a lot.

Bear in mind that most farmers spray heavily so your dog could have all sorts of pesticides all over it too. So on all fronts its not a good idea


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## Thatoneuchiha (6 mo ago)

NoSpecialFeaturesHere said:


> You can't damage it. Tractors go trundling over it all the time lol, you can't do more damage than them. It's probably just because it's private property or it could have been sprayed with something maybe. Farmers tend to be possessive of their land, oo-arr.
> 
> *Edited to add: When I wrote this yesterday I intended it to be taken tongue-in-cheek, and I am honestly very sorry for any offence it caused. Hand on heart. Lesson learned. xx*


Tongue in cheek? Nice to know you find the fact that some of us farmers have lost cattle to diseases when they eat dog crap contaminated bales. Also lost crops due to dogs intimating and crapping on them


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## Magyarmum (Apr 27, 2015)

Welcome to the forum. This thread is from 2013.

Perhaps you'd like to start a discussion on the same subject?


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## kimthecat (Aug 11, 2009)

Thatoneuchiha said:


> Tongue in cheek? Nice to know you find the fact that some of us farmers have lost cattle to diseases when they eat dog crap contaminated bales. Also lost crops due to dogs intimating and crapping on them


The person whom you quoted left 5 years ago !


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