[Izzy]

I lurk on TAS as I am interested in agri topics but I am essentially a townie. I enjoy visits to the country for walks etc. I pick up litter if it doesn’t look too unsavoury. I steal empty lick buckets. So often they are littering a verge, hedge or ditch I am sure they must be finished with. But am I wrong? Are they serving any use eg if filled with rain is that the only water for livestock? Are they valuable? Does the owner eventually gather them up in order to recycle them/collect a deposit?

[Womble]

No, collect away. You're doing the farmer a favour.

We have about fifty we've collected, that we grow tomatoes in.

[doganjo]

Is that the round drum things about 10 inches high?  You can make totem poles, scarecrows, and garden ornaments with them by piling one on another and decorating and clothing them.  Best if you can get the lids too

[SallyintNorth]

We reuse ours, as do many farmers.  The big round ones make great water buckets, storage buckets, an upturned one was my milking stool for years!  The smaller oblong ones are just the right size for a Box to Carry Things In on the quad bike, in the boot, and so on, and also get used as feed buckets for animals.  I have about 30 with lids I use as mothproof lightproof yarn and fibre storage boxes. 

A sizeable farm often collects up more than they can reuse themselves of course and many sell surplus in lots of 10 at farm sales and so on. 

I think most farmers would say "help yourself" if you asked - but it would be polite to ask, if you can identify the farmer in question - which I know isn't always easy. 

[Izzy]

Thank you all…..yes I should ask…..to be honest I have had the habit for long enough that I have enough buckets to serve for a while. Do any of you watch Cammy (from Landward) on YooToob? He recently visited a lick manufacturer. (His channel is The Sheep Game.)

[Shropshirelass]

We also reuse ours for loads of different things, including feed & water for stock in sheds. But we never leave empty ones out in fields.