Silly Silage Problem - Please Help?

JohnMartyn

Hi folks,

Please help if you can.

I have a query as regards silage effluent.

The wife and myself are looking at buying a house. We have found a house we like. However, there is a big farm right beside it slightly above it. It's not a steep hill just a slight incline.

There is a big shed that stores silage backing onto the property.

I thought nothing of it until a friend of mine who is a tradesman and did some work there told me to stay away from buying the property as during the wet weather silage effluent seeps onto the property's garden.

Surely this cant be allowed, I thought silage effluent had to go to a tank?

Is this a deal breaker and should we just walk away or should this be resolvable?

If resolvable, how do we go about sorting it?

Sorry for a long winded story but we do like this house and are concerned about this issue brought to our attention.

Thanks folks,
John.

rancher

JohnMartyn wrote: »

Hi folks,

Please help if you can.

I have a query as regards silage effluent.

The wife and myself are looking at buying a house. We have found a house we like. However, there is a big farm right beside it slightly above it. It's not a steep hill just a slight incline.

There is a big shed that stores silage backing onto the property.

I thought nothing of it until a friend of mine who is a tradesman and did some work there told me to stay away from buying the property as during the wet weather silage effluent seeps onto the property's garden.

Surely this cant be allowed, I thought silage effluent had to go to a tank?

Is this a deal breaker and should we just walk away or should this be resolvable?

If resolvable, how do we go about sorting it?

Sorry for a long winded story but we do like this house and are concerned about this issue brought to our attention.

Thanks folks,
John.

And it stinks.
I'm a farmer and I prefer not to live near a silage pit...so if you have the choice, walk away.
In answer to your question, all effluent must run into a tank

pakalasa

JohnMartyn wrote: »

...I thought nothing of it until a friend of mine who is a tradesman and did some work there told me to stay away from buying the property as during the wet weather silage effluent seeps onto the property's garden..

Is your friend interested in the house? Heard a story of a guy recently, who did just that. He put his freind off buying a house and ended up buying it himself.

Dunedin

JohnMartyn wrote: »

Hi folks,

Please help if you can.

I have a query as regards silage effluent.

The wife and myself are looking at buying a house. We have found a house we like. However, there is a big farm right beside it slightly above it. It's not a steep hill just a slight incline.

There is a big shed that stores silage backing onto the property.

I thought nothing of it until a friend of mine who is a tradesman and did some work there told me to stay away from buying the property as during the wet weather silage effluent seeps onto the property's garden.

Surely this cant be allowed, I thought silage effluent had to go to a tank?

Is this a deal breaker and should we just walk away or should this be resolvable?

If resolvable, how do we go about sorting it?

Sorry for a long winded story but we do like this house and are concerned about this issue brought to our attention.

Thanks folks,
John.

Definitely the effluent should be going into a tank but unfortunately not everyone complies with the regulations.

That said, it might be a case that the tank might be full due to wet weather meaning land too wet to travel to spread slurry and/or tank also collects rain water which will fill it pretty quickly too (especially if off a shed/yard). the last few year's weather have played havoc with farming practices coupled with stipulations as to when you can and cannot spread slurry (calendar farming:mad::mad:)
If you really like the house, then I would certainly explore the root cause/exact problem with the effluent first prior to making any decision. If the farmer is having significant effluent problems then he should change to Baled silage as opposed to pit silage which would eliminate the problem immediately.


Maybe just stop by the farmyard and discuss the issue with the farmer.

Dampintheattic

If you plant a bit of cabbage in the place where the effluent is getting in, you will have serious stuff -;)

maidhc

How close is the farm?

longgonesilver

If farmyard effluent is escaping from the farmyard you should be able to see a line of much darker grass/nettles where the effluent fertilizes the grass as it flows down the hill. If the tradesman is a plumber and there is a well on the property then walk away--fast.

Dont be daft

The one question nobody's asked yet is do you really wanna live beside someone who seems to have little concern in letting effluent flow from his property onto someone else's? What else doesn't he give a sh*t about?

Then kick off that relationship of "neighbour" with you making him invest significantly to rectify a problem that until you came along, was "the finest".

Dont get me wrong here, I'm not siding with the farmer in the slightest. Its a complete no brainer and if its true he has no excuse but being right isn't always the most important thing. Just my own thinking on it. Only you know how much you want the house.

Horace

Why is the house being sold to begin with? Try and find out if there has been difficulty between the owner and farmer in the past about silage effluent or slurry problems . If there has stay well clear as you will only be inheriting these problems if you buy

grazeaway

are you sure the run off is effulant? from what you say your only going by a tradesmans opionin.

he may have seen silage effulant run accross the yard as assume it goes down the field. silage slabs are construsted with gullys and drains that capture the run off and transfer it to a tank. You may see it on the surface but its diverted to a tank.

the run off could be rain water from the shed roofs these are diverted away from effulant/slurry storage tanks and usually run straight down to a field.

you shouldnt assume that every farm has effulant running freely from it. The smell of the effulant will be in the espically after harvesting when the pit is settleing , just cos you can smaell it dosent mean its not goign to a tank.

badly made and stored silage bales can also burst and leave off effulant, its does a much.

yellow50HX

one of my friends has a farmyard right next to some houses. the long and the short of it is that the yard is right on the road and the field behind the yard was part of a differnt farm. over time this field was sold for sites and there a couple of house right behind his yard wall.

When the sites were being sold he approached the auctioneer and asked him if he could talk to the prospetive owners before they signed. He met a couple of people and explained his farming to them and what to expect due to the close proximity of the yard. he milks cows so the milkign machine would ging every monring and evening, that cattle make noise espically during calving season, that he has machinery that needs to be working, that cattle make waste and that waste has to be managed and dealt with and most imporantly that farming is not a 9-5 mon to friday operation.

Some of the families walked away and the aucationeer and site owner were not too happy with him but the people that did buy and build there were at least aware of what they going to get. My advice to anyone planning on moving the country or buying a house next to a farm is to make sure you know what to expect. Try to build a relantionship with your neighbour before buying. I'd actually make it my business to meet the farmer and tell him that you were planning on buying next door and to ask him/her about what kind of farming he does and how that could impact your life, things like milking machine, lambing, calving weaning times, spreading slurry how often when and how, do they deal in cattle, heavy machinaery things like that. remember the farm was there before you so its highly unlikely they will be able to make any wholesale changes to accomdate you

JohnMartyn

Horace wrote: »

Why is the house being sold to begin with? Try and find out if there has been difficulty between the owner and farmer in the past about silage effluent or slurry problems . If there has stay well clear as you will only be inheriting these problems if you buy

The old pair living in the house passed away.

The owner of the farm is a son of the deceased.

JohnMartyn

Lads,

Thanks very much for your replies. It is very much appreciated.

I will make contact with the farmer before bidding.

Any more questions I could/should ask him apart from those mentioned?

Go raibh maith agaibh.
John.

Good loser

Get some one else to look over the effluent situation - that is to confirm it does come into the site. This year is very dry and small effluent flows whereas last year there was a lot of effluent.

Also would the silage/effluent smell bother you through the year?

mikeoh

JohnMartyn wrote: »

The old pair living in the house passed away.

The owner of the farm is a son of the deceased.

So ur buying the farmer's old home house but not off him by the sound of it...........chances are "he didn't s**t on his own door step".....but if u n the house he was reared in and he can't ever again be he might start..........is the vendor related to him if there is no "bad blood" why not get the vendor to arrange for u to meet the farmer as describe above just to break the ice and see how busy of a farmland it is..............or a few quid to an environmental engineer will soon get u an answer ..

JohnMartyn

Thanks for responses lads.

Am still sussing it out.

John.

dharn

Sounds like a bad idea to me, eventhough reared on a farm I hate the smell of slurry / silage effluent