# obnoxious odor of a strategicly placed ring feeder full of rotten silage: nuisance?



## Fight Back (18 Apr 2007)

At wits end with obnoxious odor of a strategicly placed ring feeder full of rotten silage. What if any protection has a household from a deliberate nuisance? Appeals to this bad minded gentleman have fallen on deaf ears. We're country so please no what do you expect posts please. Anyone relate?


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## Morgause (18 Apr 2007)

*Re: Silage Nuisance*

I believe if you contact your local county council they should be able to do something.  I think it's the Environment section.


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## Fight Back (18 Apr 2007)

*Re: Silage Nuisance*

Wonder of wonders! Evil ring feeder disappeared this morning. For future referance will local authourity take action as Morguase suggests? Anyone been through the procedure?


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## nelly (19 Apr 2007)

*Re: Silage Nuisance*

why live in the country if the smell of silage (and presumably slurry on another day), open to the air is so obnoxious to you?   
you might plant lavender/roses/nice smelling plants on your side of the wall/fense / ditch incase "evil" ring feeder arrives back later in the year.


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## Seagull (19 Apr 2007)

*Re: Silage Nuisance*



nelly said:


> why live in the country if the smell of silage (and presumably slurry on another day), open to the air is so obnoxious to you?
> you might plant lavender/roses/nice smelling plants on your side of the wall/fense / ditch incase "evil" ring feeder arrives back later in the year.


If you read the original post carefully, you will see that this was a "deliberate nuisance". There is a difference between putting up with natural countryside/farming smells, and having someone being unpleasant.


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## Morgause (19 Apr 2007)

*Re: Silage Nuisance*



Fight Back said:


> Wonder of wonders! Evil ring feeder disappeared this morning. For future referance will local authourity take action as Morguase suggests? Anyone been through the procedure?



Yep, my parents once had to call their local authority due to silage smells in the field next door.  I'm not sure if the LA just rang the farmer or called out to the area in person but since then the farmer has been very considerate.


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## ubiquitous (19 Apr 2007)

*Re: Silage Nuisance*

The problem with a "deliberate nuisance" case such as the above is that it can be hard to prove. If the farmer claims that he is acting in good faith and has at least a superficially credible reason for locating the feeder where it is, he will generally get the benefit of the doubt. Dunno is there a solution here except maybe to appeal to his conscience by being as pleasant to him as possible. At the very least you will really drive him mad by being insufferably sunny and pleasant every time you meet him!


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## nelly (19 Apr 2007)

*Re: Silage Nuisance*

the farmer was deliberately feeding his animals... a fairly solid defence i would say. Talk to the farmer and see what they say. I agree that the case would be very hard to prove.  The ring feeder is usually placed near the access gate to the field to drop in the fodder - is this the case here? 
Have the animals started bawling for the missing food now that the ring feeder has been removed?, if so that could drive you stir crazy!


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## Seagull (19 Apr 2007)

*Re: Silage Nuisance*



nelly said:


> the farmer was deliberately feeding his animals...


rotten silage? That doesn't sound to me like particularly good farming practise.


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## nelly (19 Apr 2007)

*Re: Silage Nuisance*

silage is rotten grass i think - open to correction.


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## ubiquitous (19 Apr 2007)

*Re: Silage Nuisance*



nelly said:


> silage is rotten grass i think - open to correction.



Not rotten grass as such but silage is produced by storing freshly cut grass under airtight (or largely airtight) cover for a period of several months. During this time transforms from its original state to a yellowish, tightly packed mass which is ideal feeding for cattle. There isn't really such a thing as 'rotten silage' that would be capable of being fed to animals, but all silage does have a distinctive and rather strong odour. Some people might find this odour a bit objectionable but having come from a farm background myself it wouldn't really bother me.


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## nelly (19 Apr 2007)

*Re: Silage Nuisance*

the smell of silage open to the air should be very little, unless it is a bale that is unwrapped recently. It doesn't smell of roses hense my origional suggestion!


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## Fight Back (20 Apr 2007)

*Re: Silage Nuisance*

Nelly, you know as well as all of us that it hasn't rained in the past month. Good farming practice in dry conditions would be to place ring feeder at furthest point from gate so to save wear and tear around and about the gate from animals congregating at the gate. In wet conditions nearer to the gate is the norm to reduce churning by farm machinery. The area in this instance is 4 dry acres. In this scenereo are you seriously suggesting that this so called farmer is acting reasonable and neighborly by "deliberately" feeding his stock  practically on top of my kitchen table? It's not as if he's short of space.  Lets be honest here some farmers are reasonable some aren't. By the way have you ever noticed that none of them have a bale or as much of a pike of it in the vicinity of their on homes? Don't even try to justify this mans ignorance.


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## nelly (20 Apr 2007)

*Re: Silage Nuisance*



Fight Back said:


> Nelly, you know as well as all of us that it hasn't rained in the past month. Good farming practice in dry conditions would be to place ring feeder at furthest point from gate so to save wear and tear around and about the gate from animals congregating at the gate. In wet conditions nearer to the gate is the norm to reduce churning by farm machinery. The area in this instance is 4 dry acres. In this scenereo are you seriously suggesting that this so called farmer is acting reasonable and neighborly by "deliberately" feeding his stock  practically on top of my kitchen table? It's not as if he's short of space.  Lets be honest here some farmers are reasonable some aren't. By the way have you ever noticed that none of them have a bale or as much of a pike of it in the vicinity of their on homes? Don't even try to justify this mans ignorance.



i can see one of you may indeed be unreasonable.


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## Fight Back (21 Apr 2007)

*Re: Silage Nuisance*

As a point of interest Nelly, are you a farmers wife?


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## Gordanus (21 Apr 2007)

*Re: Silage Nuisance*



Fight Back said:


> As a point of interest Nelly, are you a farmers wife?



ohhhhhhhhh- sexism!  Could she be a farmer?  (eh guess not given her knowledge of silage)


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## nelly (21 Apr 2007)

*Re: Silage Nuisance*



Fight Back said:


> As a point of interest Nelly, are you a farmers wife?



I only wish i was a farmers wife, I wouldn't be living in 2 bed semi land like i am now. 

Fightback on your writen knowledge of animal husbandry are you perhaps a farmer?? 
when the calves / cows are lowing (as they will be in a few months time no doubt) will you be fighting back regarding the "deliberate nuisance" noise pollution then too? if so keep us posted as to how you get on!


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## someanne (21 Apr 2007)

*Re: Silage Nuisance*

fightback, you're right about the positioning of the feeder for both dry and wet weather

nelly, you're just stirring

S.


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## nelly (21 Apr 2007)

*Re: Silage Nuisance*



someanne said:


> nelly, you're just stirring


busted? maybe 

A bit of communication wouldn't go amiss before reporting anyone to authorities, creating more bad blood and wasting the time of county council workers as this case would be very difficult to get the desired result in - ubiquitous words not mine. 

OP needs to chill out and do what his right for him to enjoy his home for years to come which is to communicate with this neighbour and yes ask him nicely to shift feeder. I grew up down wind of a small piggery. Now theres a smell i would have swopped with a silage pit in a minute!


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## Seagull (23 Apr 2007)

*Re: Silage Nuisance*



nelly said:


> I grew up down wind of a small piggery.


Are you still capable of smelling anything? I'd expect your nose to have shut down completely.


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## ubiquitous (23 Apr 2007)

*Re: Silage Nuisance*



Fight Back said:


> By the way have you ever noticed that none of them have a bale or as much of a pike of it in the vicinity of their on homes?



This is a very sweeping statement. It doesn't stand up to the slightest scrutiny. Most Irish farmhouses are in direct proximity to farmyards, which by their nature would normally (for at least 6 months of the year) contain silage, and also (all year-round) other odorous matter such as stored slurry. You will only undermine your own position if you turn your argument against this farmer into an ill-informed anti-farmer rant.


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## nelly (23 Apr 2007)

*Re: Silage Nuisance*



ubiquitous said:


> You will only undermine your own position if you turn your argument against this farmer into an ill-informed anti-farmer rant.


I thought that happened a while back. the rant that is. 

As for my nose - its fine - olifactory ok! , what one fails to recognise is that wind direction and intensity changes on this little island all the time. living down wind of a pig farm is not a problem unless the wind is blowing one way at the same time as some actions were occurring on the farm or in this case the silage is being unwrapped.   
As i pointed out prior to the fairly new baled silage you had silage pits (a whole field of cut grass into a cement pit) located next to cattle sheds to be fed to housed animals in the winter next to the farmers house. Consequently you might notice sweet williams, wild roses, lavenders, herbs aka nice smelly flowers located near those houses. hense my origional non-stirring suggestion. Least i be accused of being pro-evil farming practices i wont be posting anymore in this topic.


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## Fight Back (24 Apr 2007)

*Re: Silage Nuisance*

Ubi thank you for the straightener. Your'e right about that statement being broad sweeping but it does appear that way in my particular locality. Younger farmers tend to build homes near but away from the homeplace and not in proximity to the yard. It's an observation thats all. Not an anti farming rant but I can see how you might take it up that way. Sorry about that. I'll try and give everyone including your presumptious serial poster Nelly an update and some background. The "evil" ring feeder that was "delibertly" and expertly placed has since disappeared along with the smell of what I knew to be "rotten" silage wafting through my home creating a nuisance. The gentleman has since apologised "that it was a mistake and petty". It was in responce to my lodging an objection to his attempt (he never consulted us despite generations of cooperation and peace) to build an easy feed slatted unit 20 meters from my home. The good news is the council refused his application. He will now have to reapply and site it next to his own home over a 1/4 mile away from mine. So there you have it. All is well. Perhaps Nelly will plant something sweet for him.


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## bskinti (29 Apr 2007)

In Nelly's defense and a BIG lesson has been learned here for anyone who came from the towns to live in the countryside, "If you have a problem with a farmer the first course of action would be to try talking to him to sort your problem and if this fails try again", believe me you will not want them as an enemy. Fight back you are lucky to have such a nice considerate neighbor. He could have tipped dung in that field for a few year to let it rot, he could tip a load of beet or a rick of straw and then you would see how rats can breed, and he can spread slurry or blood every Friday evening at times in the year and he can fill that field with waining lambs or he could do all his work there at 6 in the morn.


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