Cow muck in cycle lane dropped by farmer

[trampyjoe]

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.

 

[trampyjoe]

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

 

[Accy cyclist]

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.

 

[Linford]

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

 

[400bhp]

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

 

[GBC]

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.

 

[RaRa]

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!

 

[ColinJ]

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.

 

[Davidc]

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.

 

[Paul J]

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.

 

[BikeLiker]

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?

 

[byegad]

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.

 

[Glow worm]

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!

 

[psmiffy]

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

 

[Glow worm]

Have you ever seen a farmer on a bike?

This bloke hasn't!