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From the Wellies - Land Access
Highland Perthshire has once again produced a spectacular display of autumn colours, although sunny days to enjoy them to their full potential have been few and far between.
The tourist season seems to get longer every year with many people enjoying short autumn breaks or days out. Whether you choose to view the countryside from the comfort of your car or get your hiking boots on, a couple of incidents that happened in this area recently, have highlighted some hidden dangers of the countryside.
Both incidents involved people passing through fields with cows and calves in them. This first incident involved a young girl crossing a field with calving cows, on her way to visit friends. She came across a newborn calf and tried to move the calf back to its mother, who was some way across the field giving birth to the other twin. Fortunately in this case, the girl was lucky in that the cow did not attack her and she survived to tell the tale. As anyone with any experience of stock will tell you, event the most docile of cows will attack if they think their newborn calf is in danger.
The second incident involved a dog being chased by cattle. The dog owner was driving a quad bike with his two grandchildren as passengers. The dog was running alongside, and was injured by the cattle, as was the owner when he tried to intervene and save it. The dog required stitches for his wounds and the owner suffered broken bones and bruising. It should be pointed out that this was an extreme case, but it just shows what can happen when animals feel threatened.
The lessons to be learned from these incidents are, if at all possible, do not enter a field which is being used as a lambing or calving field or that contains mothers with their young, and if you do discover a newborn which has seemingly been abandoned, best advice is to never touch it as its mother will almost definitely know where it is and will be close by.
No farmers or landowners want to restrict access to the countryside, but we have to rely on people to use their access rights responsibly. Farmland is almost unique in that it is a workplace like any building site or factory floor. The difference with farmland is that people have almost unrestricted access to it.
Luckily, incidents such as these are few and far between and as stock owners, we take reasonable precautions to ensure people’s safety. If you are unsure about going through fields containing livestock, the best advice is to seek an alternative route.
Let’s hope there are a few more sunny days so that everyone can enjoy the autumn colours before the predicted ‘hard winter’ finally sets in.
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