The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: ellisr on August 15, 2011, 01:16:50 pm
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At the weekend I had 2 unexpected visitors.
I got up to find 2 beltex rams in with my ewes after a bit of a fight I contained them in the small paddock and OH went to the neighbour to tell them they had escaped. The neighbour said they didn't belong to him but a farmer that was renting the field, over an hour later the farmer turned up with not even a sorry.
Today my sheep have got through the hole the beltex made into there field (no rams there now) and the neighbour has rang my landlord complaining. This is after me putting up with there dogs running around my fields worrying the sheep and the rams visiting for the last week, I find it very unfair that they can get so unreasonable and demand I leave work and get to the farm instantly to bring my sheep back from there safe enclosed empty field and they can't wait until I get in from work.
The landlord is now very upset and my tenancy hangs in the balance.
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Shame. Hope things work out OK.
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I would be telling them that next time the rams get it you will be reporting them to Animal Health for unauthorised movement. And next time the dogs are in they will be shot.
Im not normally OTT about these things but this sounds like unreasonable behaviour.
How good were the fences and are they his responsibility (England) or joint (Scotland)?
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I'm sorry he's being so awkward - what's behind that? >:(
Can you talk to your landlord and explain that the sheep got out through a hole that the nieghbour's tenant's sheep made and that you're not sure why he's being so difficult with you nor ringing them directly - how reasonable is your landlord?
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they are hedges which I had patched with wire and pallets last year. The neighbours were looking at the hedges yesterday when I was busy in the field and said they were patching where the rams got through so I thought no more about it but they had there side of the hedge cut yesterday which has damaged and pulled down some of my fencing posts in the other field and they know from last year that the way they have there hedges done always creates more holes and it takes a few days to find all of the issues.
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Such a shame that some neibours can be so stupid and difficult over the simplist of things that can be easily sorted !!! hope you can make them see sense !!
andy
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To quote and old advert "It's good to talk" :)
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or another one
'good fences make good neighbours'
and
'my neighbours neighbour is my friend'
:-)))
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Sometimes a charm offensive is the best tactic. If nothing else it at least gives one the satisfaction of knowing one is on the moral high ground... (I know, I should turn the other cheek without seeking reward in this life or the next... but sometimes it takes quite a bit of self-motivation to be sweet and charming to the unreasonable...)
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I normally do do that Sally but yesterday I was in tears as they are just so unreasonable. So I have now decided that if the dog comes in and worries the sheep I will ring the police as I have tried to highlight the problem and talk to them about it and it still continues with the answer of 'she is fine with sheep'. Chasing the sheep down 2 fields is not fine and not listening to commands is not fine.
I locked the sheep in my small paddock and chained the gate this morning as I couldn't fix all the holes last night in the top field, so unless the sheep learn how to use bolt cutters they are safe. It's not fair on them but it is only for a few days until I can get all of the stuff to fix the problem.
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It makes life so stressful this sort of thing doesn't it
Why are they being so awkward?
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Ellisr I've read your various posts over the months and you seem to have such problems living there. Of course I don't know both sides of the stories but just from reading what you write, I think it is time for you to seriously consider moving. You get so much hassle from so many different people.
All the moving problems and grief of finding another place aside, there are other properties out there with a bit of land. What you go through from those around you at that property is not worth all the worry.
:bouquet:
Re the dog, it shouldn't be in there, end of. I would ring the police if it entered again and report it for sheep worrying - and when you see them next tell the dog owners that is exactly what you will do (so they know in advance, it might make them think twice about allowing it to roam). Say it in a 'nice' way, but stand your ground.
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just shoot the bugger either film or lead :farmer:
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Moving is not an option for a long while.
I am putting up new fencing 'again' this weekend and electrifying the top so if the dog jumps it will get a shock.
My neighbours always seem to get grumpy in the summer holidays so I'm sure they will settle down again and just leave us alone
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Move. Worrying and stressing just isn't worth it. Why not try a local estate/farm and see if they have anything. We've had very inconsiderate neighbours in the past and it's upsetting, now we live without neighbours and it is bliss. Animals are much nicer than most people, sad to say. Good luck. Perhaps a lump of meat from the freezer to whoever you are trying to appease may do the trick temporarily.
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Straydogs are now the responsibility of the council dogwardens rather than the police (at least in England). If the dog comes again I'd catch it and phone the dog warden. It will then get taken to kennels where the owner will have to pay to get there dog back. We used to have quite a problem with stray dogs, some completely unknown and some from the village. When one particular dog had chased our sheep for about the third time instead of returning it to its owner we phoned the dog warden who collected it. Some time later we had an irate owner on the doorstep having had to pay for the return of their dog but the dog didn't cause any more problems.
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Owning animals = stress
Just dont take your neighbours so seriously, they are in exactly the same position as you - ie the law wont give a s**t.
Animals always escape, your ram will probably shag his ewes one day, and his ewes will probably escape into your field sometime and vice versa. Its what animals do.
Playing a devils advocate here - do you think your neighbour was frustrated even though his field was empty, because he was saving the grass for his lot?
I agree - good fences = good neighbours.
It should really be him thats stops his rams getting in with your ewes though - I spose its an unspoken rule.
Baz
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Dogs worrying livestock is a matter for the police and if you catch them in the act you should phone 999 as it is classed as an emergency.
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Hallo, I am new to the forum this morning, but just wanted to post my own experience.
I had a stray whippet kill 14 chickens and 1 duck before being caught. We contacted our local council who sent out the dog warden. The operator at the council took the details and made the owner aware when they rang to report a missing dog, that the dog had killed and the dog warden was aware of this. I later called the police and asked for the owner to be spoken to, the advantage of this is that there is a record and should the dog be caught loose again, it would have to be put to sleep.
Coincidentally in the next 3 days, my neighbour had three ewes and lambs go down with a number of issues and we cannot prove to this day that it was the same dog, but too much of a coincidence. I would strongly recommend reporting the dogs now.
There is legislation about having dogs under control in land holding livestock.
Hope that helps
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We have footpaths all the way round our land, across it, within it, under it, over it - well you get the gist.
The biggest excuse for not having a dog on a lead is 'I know my dog and its never chased anything' - but the owners are normally from a city where they own a walled garden and only take the dog to the park where no livestock exist.
I've even been talking to a walker as she went over the same justification lines for not having a lead on her dog then 1/2 a second later the chicken was in the dogs mouth. - you cant blame the dog - you have to blame the owner.
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There's also an issue of education and understanding.
Before I got into farming I thought of myself as a country-lover. I walked widely, had extremely well-trained and well-behaved (and well-exercised) dogs, lived backing onto farmland, etc, etc.
Even when I was working on other people's farms, I still didn't really get it. Only when I had my own moorland farm with hundreds of ewes whose pregnancies really mattered to me did I come to understand how very little stress it takes to cause a ewe to lose that recently implanted egg, to leave that newborn lamb, or a lamb to run scared into a fence, trap a leg and lose a foot.
A Scottish shepherd once told me, years ago, that ewes can tell the difference between a dog on a lead and one running free, that they know their own dogs and which dogs are strangers, and that strange dogs unleashed cause stress and harm, however well-controlled and -behaved. After that I did, always, walk away from ewes with newborn lambs and keep dogs on leads near sheep with any lambs - but much more to appease any farmers who might be watching than because I really believed what I'd been told.
I know now that he was right. I just don't know how to get the message (and all the other similar messages) across.
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Nicely put SallyintNorth.
:sheep:
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I have locked off the top field where the hole in the hedge is, I had a walk around there last night and it has a lot of dog toys and feaces in it that were not there on sunday so obviously the dog is still coming in and playing in the field but at least now the sheep and horse are away from it. We are starting new fencing this weekend so that should keep any of his 'tenants' animals out and my lot in we have decided to pop electric around top and bottom to keep the dog out.
In a way it is a good thing as we have decided to section the fields at the same time as doing the new fencing something we have been thinking of for a while now and eventually will get done.
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hi im new here...but i used to work on a farm and the farmer had similar problems..he warned the owner it was in his right to 'remove' any dog distressing the sheep (he even shot one of his own for attacking a sheep)....about a month later it was back snapping at the ewes backside...so he shot it.
Farmers are legally allowed to shoot a dog or any animal that distresses there sheep.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/7275112.stm (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/7275112.stm)
Axe