Farm Animals coming on to our property/land

[bill123]

Hello Forum

Occasionally farm animals, sheep and cattle will come onto our land/property in Wales
The cattle can be a problem as they at least churn the field up if not more damage to the garden if they reach that far in a very short time.
The cattle come from a neighbouring farmers field.
The problem is keeping a good fence as the boundary is a small river in a certain place and the farmer's attempts at fencing get washed away in this area regularly.
In the dry weather in April for example, even the sheep crossed the river (4 inches deep) and ended up at our house, not a problem as soon went home/we don't mind them.

Whoes resposibility is it
Farmer to keep the cattle in his field off our land
or us to keep the cattle out of our field/property.
or both of us have responsibility?

Our field where the cattle come in is classed as agricultural land and lived here over 15 years.
We have never asked the farmer to pay for any damage in the past.

Maybe we should ask him not to put cattle on this field, but sheep are ok?
He has other fields

regards
Bill

[Celestine]

Hello Bill

Common sense would dictate that a farmer is required to fence in his livestock and is likely to be insured for when they escape.

Do you have a good relationship with the farmer overall? I can imagine maintaining fencing along a river would be tricky, is there anyway of installing a temporary fence on your side even though that may require a separate agreement to avoid accidentally giving away land.

If things don't improve, you would definitely have a legal route forward for claiming damages from him for his cattle invading your garden. The small claims track of the county court would provide a method albeit pretty slow currently. So long as you notify him in writing of your intention to recover monies through the courts, but as always, its usually best to try for a negotiated solution.

[bill123]

Hello Celestine

Thank you for your reply

Its hard to fence either side of the boundary at certain point pernamently with normal fencing along the river. Some points along the iver areeasy to fence due high river bank.

The solution of the years has been historicaly been for the farmers to run barbed wire over the river at this point from one bank their side to the other our side to stop the cattle getting any futhe ron to our land. However heavy rain flooding and tree trunks etc coming down the small river that break the fencing every year t least once.

My eldery father 80+ does not really have a good relaionship with this farmer i not sureif they have ever met, other neibbouring farmers no problem.
I would not say its hopelless relationship, but my father likes to mico manage and gets over concerned about issues i believe at times.
Ther reason for the bad relationship are
1, lack care eg animals coming in repeately and damage
2 in recent years a request from is solisitor to swap small parcels of land (i will expand below)

The farmer inquestion recently inherited the farm fro his father.
At that point for what ever reason he decided to see if we would swap some land and was "persistant", with this request through the solisitor dealing with the estate transfer to him. Probaly just trying to tidy up the ownership

My family on the land registery own the land in question as title absolute for over 15 years.
The farmer wanted to swap a small piece of marshy land on his side of the river for a slightly bigger piece land on ourr side of the river.
This piece land of our land better than marshy bit in a number of respects, however when the river is low the farmers cattle and sometimes sheep will cross over the river and "graze" this part of our land.. If the barbed wire is in order the cattle will not enter our land any futher so not problem regards damage.

Historacly the farmer who inherited claims their as some verbal agreement to swap the land formentioned with a previous owner of our property, i do not know any facts about this.

However a previous owner not the one before us of our property did try claim the marshy bit of ground in the past we have paper records/land regitery showing this but it failed. The only reason i can see why one of the previous owners made this bold claim to the marshy land on the overside was because of once again fencing and the river. At the point of the marshy ground to prevent damage to the fence the farmer has fenced away from the river back futhe into his field. So if we had animals its possible if the river was low they could cross the river and "graze" on the farmers marsh land up to his fence, which does not get washed away by heavy rain etc.

So the solution of grazing only sheep on this field seemed reasonable request as a solution. It puts fieldto use etc but sheep coming in would not cause much damage be acceptable they might eat some of my plants but at least its a possible workable solution. Maybe teir is reaon i am not aware of why he puts cattle on?

regards
Bill

[des8]

The Person in whose possession the animals are, is liable for damage or expenses caused by the livestock straying on to someone else's land. Expenses includes cost of looking after the animals whilst on that land. The Animals Act 1971,

The farmer has a strict liability in regard to straying animals, so simply claiming the fencing has failed is no defence .