Framers and boundaries.

[Brown]

My woodland shares a boundary with a farmer's field that looks like it's occupied by Aberdeen Angus. Just recently I noticed that someone, premuably at the behest of the farmer, has been along the boundary witha flailer. There is a fence that clearly damarkates this boundary but the flailer has clearly reached on to my land to destroy anything that is growing within about 4 feet of the fence. This is mainly bracken but also some saplings and a holly tree of reasonable stature. I'm assuming he would like some sort of buffer zone, so that his cattle don't graze anything poisonous. Any ideas? Am I obliged to maintain a buffer zone or has he just shown blatant disregard?

[tracy]

Hi Brown, great to see you here.

This is a tricky one! I guess getting to know the farmer and talking to him is your best bet. I can't imagine that he is allowed to flail stuff on your land - maybe the stuff leaning over the fence, but not actually in your land?! Perhaps others here will know more than me about this one..

[Exeldama]

Cheeky individual. No he doesnt have any right to flail your side. If you have poisonous stuff growing over then yes he can chop it and deposit the remains over your side.

Clearly he should have approached you and asked to flail your bit and im sure you would have done your best to accomodate him.

I wonder if its as much the fact that he just doesnt want to flail too often so what better than to chop back as far as he can reach...

[Brown]

Thanks for your comments. I suppose getting to know the farmer is a good starting point. I've only just recently bought the woodland so it has probably not been managed for a while. Consequently the farmer has taken it upon himself to manage the boundary himself in the absence of anyone else doing it.

[John H]

I would say the farmer was trying to do you a favour. Most farmers like to keep their boundary hedges tidy and if they can reach over to cut both sides of the hedge they wouold think it was a neighbourly thing to do. He probably assumed you would not want a holly tree growing up within a metre of the hedge making future cutting difficult and taking light from the hedge and suppressing it.

If you have just bought the woodland the first thing you should do is go along and introduce yourself to the farmer to show them you are "Tidy"

John

[DaveTaz]

you need to be 100% sure as to where the actual boundary is. The presence of a fence doesn't automatically mean it is a boundary marker. Could it be possible the fence is on his land to keep stock away from the hedge/trees and he is actually cutting stuff that belongs to him?