Coming from a farming background yourself BWW, I would have thought you would have more patience, compassion and understanding about the balance between the many uses and users of our green and pleasant land
Sad day for the agricultural industry, when they need me to fight their battles for them. Surely the NFU represents enough of them to put pressure on the Veterinary Practices and the Pharmaceutical companies to educate dog owners.
Pauldawes hits the nail on the head, like him I do not walk with a dog, dog owners are a peripheral urban problem, not necessarily an access issue. But has the the CLA instigated any research to identify if this problem due to walkers, not pet owners walking their dogs. Has the rural landowner, cashing in on the property market helped exacerbate this issue? Between the pharmaceutical companies, veterinary practices and dog food manufactures there's enough vested interest and marketing potential to find an actual practical solution.
Did I deliberately go trampling through this hayfield to annoy the farmer? Read my posts! I am not blaming the farmer, I was asking where the motivation is coming from that causes the farmer to ignore his responsibilities as a land manager, yet use an agricultural problem as an excuse.
Both DA and Mel have fallen into the trap of appeasement, by not identifying the true culprit. There is an answer here, a perfectly good alternative route. Had the the CLA done their homework, before coming into a membership race with the NFU, we probably would not be having this argument? There are plenty of management techniques that could be used, if only they had been thought out by the bodies that represent farmers and landowners.
Do not forget that this this an area that has escaped being furnished by the RoW dept. of Powys CC, so the true effects of landowner/farmer issue is showing through. 20 or 30 years worth of the CLA trying to establish a grass roots membership, within the agricultural community, without the CLA owning up to the major part their members have played in the past to create this problem in the first place.
I came across this notion of 'shutting off a hayfield', over 10 years ago, when the only knowledge of a Nemotode that can migrate from the stomack into the bloodstream, so that it can infect the liver of a bovine was probably only in the minds of the vets specializing in rare diseases. By that time the landowners were well into the swing of converting country cottages from farm workers abodes to desirable country retreats for an expanding urban population.
dolfor_map_hayfield by
Barewirewalker, on Flickr
We parked at a civic center by the school, top right of the map, our route had taken us through the hayfield on the out bound part of the walk, so there was no, indication that we should not walk through it apart from lack of walk furniture.
Hayfield is shaded in green. The obstructions marked are to both the RoW and viable alternatives