Lucy Nott: Talking should accompany the walking on public access

School summer holidays are well underway and for us, like many farms across the country, this brings an increase in footpath traffic.

I am a big fan of public access on farms. But as wonderful as footpaths are, and as happy as we are to maintain them, it can get a little frustrating repeating the same phrases to walkers day in, day out.

In contrast to last August, we’re staring out at our fields of winter wheat and waiting for the rain to stop and the air to warm up so that we can start combining.

See also: Lucy Nott – we’re optimistic about Sustainable Farming Incentive

About the author

Lucy Nott

Farmlife opinion writer

Lucy lives with her husband, a sixth-generation farmer, and their two children on a 100ha (250 acre) arable farm in Worcestershire. On the farm they have a passion for regenerative agriculture and aspire to transition to a regenerative system. They are also part of the Sustainable Farming Incentive pilot and are trialling lots of new things on the farm. They hosted their first LEAF Open Farm Sunday (LOFS) this year and Lucy is now the LOFS Ambassador for the West Midlands.

Read more articles by Lucy Nott

So, it was particularly frustrating this morning, to discover a dog walker happily throwing her ball away from the footpath and into the wheat for her dog to play fetch.

We may not have livestock, but at certain times of the year our crops are particularly vulnerable to stray pooches and their owners.

We have considered putting signs on gateposts, but have held off, at the risk of making the farm look like some over-signed traffic system.

Plus, I fear we may not be able to write any signs that don’t sound super passive aggressive – which is hardly welcoming for walkers, or good for local PR.

However, we do have our “your sat nav is wrong” sign to discourage drivers from going down our farm track, as we got fed up with pulling cars out of the brook at the bottom.

The NFU has some fantastic field signs which you can order or download – with great copy and no passive aggressive farmerisms.

They explain what is growing in the field and have QR codes that walkers can scan for more information. As with a lot of things, mistakes are often made due to lack of understanding.

The more transparent we can be and the more regular footpath users understand the farm business they are walking through, the less likely they will be to stray away from the footpaths.

So, overall we need less shouting and more signs. More sign-reading and less tramline-walking. More lead-using and less ball-throwing.