Hi,

I live in a small vilage in the countryside. Our house and garden run parrallel to a narrow strip of farmland. Twice last year a local farmer spread his manure over the patch of land. Some of it landed in our garden. Manure is raw sewage and contains lots of poisons and attracts flies. In the heat of summer this is a pain.

The land is not used fro grazing cattle or growing crops as it is too small.

I understand that living in the countryside means enduring country ways of doing things. Surely the Swiss must have some rules about spraying raw sewage in close proximity to dwellings and homes.

Please advise.

It makes the grass grow better.

The grass is cut to make hay to feed farm animals in winter.

The farmer's not spreading in in the middle of summer. He's doing it now.

That's what happens in the countryside.

Actually, I wish they'd spread some on my garden - it would save me carting sacks of it around in the car.
Aren't you the lucky one!

Actually it is your house that is next to the farm.

You can ask the farmer to be careful of not spraying manure into your land otherwise,

Welcome to Switzerland:




Here's a thought: Where does your drinking water come from?

...'enduring country ways' seems a sad way of 'enjoying' the land. The Swiss have rules for pretty well everything it's true but I expect the farmer would argue that there should be more rules about building houses too near to his fields.

This is a been there, done that situation though and if you have your washing outside when the deed is being done, even if the field isn't directly next to your garden, you can thank your lucky stars if you have your own washing machine. You'll be needing it for a repeat performance for that load.

Surely, the CFF/SBB would be able to advise on such a procedure, they do it everyday, all year round.

It's organic as well. Just think, it could be harsh chemicals instead.

It just gets better.

Just to clarify the house was built by a farmer on land next to farming land so that he could rent it out.This isnt a case of me building a house in the countryside and not being able to to put up with the country ways.

Anyway the only helpful reply here is from Olygirl, I will have a word with him.

To the others if you don't have something useful to say, dont say anything.

Cheers

uh oh... (went hiding underneath a table)

Some of us have our tongue in our cheek when we write the sort of reply I wrote. It's not a terribly good idea to antagonise old members with remarks like yours anyway. The oldies can sometimes come in very handy with the information they've acquired over the years. Like old cardboard boxes in the cellar, they get in the way but you never know when you might need one.

It is a very common practice and you will NOT GET SICK from having it on your land. I grew up in the country side - we used to run around barefoot and rarely were sick, and definitely never over some bacterial infestation from dirt and stuff in the dirt.
It stinks for a while but a few good rain showers will make it sink in. If you dont want to wait for rain, take the hose and wash/spray anything that's on your land off.
Or buy some plants and plant them right where the maneure is: no better natural food for any plant than the farmer's load. And it's free.
And it's part of Switzerland.
I'd rather have that than my crappy neighbour in Florida who picks up any wood (includes furniture and wood looking stuff) to burn it in his cheminee and outdoors fireplace

Are you certain the farmer was spreading his manure and not some cow's manure? Btw, "raw sewage" and "manure" are not the same thing. Either way, it won't smell very pleasant during the initial application, but this is what we in the biz like to call "nutrient cycling", and it is important, especially in the Spring to help the plants grow. Growing plants, in turn, feed animals and people. The better the nutrients, the more food there is produced.

Those tomatoes you love don't grow themselves, you know! It took a bit of shit to help put them on your table.

No, it's not.

It's FERMENTED sewage!

Tom

Stop! You're going to give us a recipe using it next!

We live in the country next to a field that was sprayed last week and I must say spraying usually only takes place in spring or autumn. Over the last 6 years I cannot off hand remember any summer spraying.

It does smell pretty foul but that is just for the first 24/48 hours or so. I must say that it does reach our veg patch (luckily I'd dug it and so it was awaiting its spring feed ) and part of our lawn so I usually stop the children from going on the lawn for a couple of days. Last week it coincided with a lot of rain and you can hardly see it now.

It is just one of those things and I personally would think twice before speaking to the farmer about it - but if it is particularly bad then it might be worth your while. Obviously it's easier if you know the farmer already (can't quite work out from your posts if the house is rented from the muck spraying farmer or another)

Twice a year! You are very very lucky indeed. Our farmer is muck spreading all around today as well. They have to do it before rain, so it doesn't stay on the land too long. If you live next to farmland- well, better get used to it. Although of course he should be careful not to send some on your land.

No sarcasm in my reply, but it is the way it is - fortunately we were full aware of this when we bought our house here in the countryside. It's been here since the 16C - and muck spreading is just a fact of life here even since then, so can't really argue against that.

Farmers do spread sometimes in Summer if for any reason the cows have not been able to spend much time outside, due to very bad weather. Most farms have good storage facilities, but when the system is full, it just has to be emptied, that is both solids and liquids. Officially they do have to do so when rain is forecast, but we've had one or two occasions where muck spreading took place in dry weather, as an 'emergency' eg system cannot store any more. Very unpleasant, but rare, pheew.

There is an issue recently down in the Valley below re muck spreading. One of the beautiful old farms has recently built a huge new modern cow shed, The planning permission was for 175 head of cattle - but somehow the new owners managed to double this... how is now investigated. That means they have about 5 times the number of milking cows than the old farm! But the land around has of course not grown - and in order to keep things working, they have to muck spread almost constantly- and the locals are NOT NOT NOT happy and are trying to reverse the situation and force the farmer to get rid of any cows above the 175 initially allowed by planning! It is 'war' down there at the mo.
Something many ex-pats do not understand btw. In the US you can have huge herds that produce millions of tons of manure, in the huge industrial agricultural Mid-West. In CH, space is very confined - first the new cow shed is ugly and ruins the countryside, but mainly, what on earth do you do with the MANURE, solid and liquid!!! Recently the said farm had a huge accidental (??? many doubt this) overflow of 1000s of litres which polluted the local river too.

My property borders a farm - and and my garden benefits greatly from the farmer's manure sprayer.

I have an arrangement that whenever he is spraying the area, he points his hose over the fence and does my garden as well. I get a good natural fertilizer, and he knows exactly what I'm using - as what I put on my plants could affect his bio rating.

Speaking of which, is your garden defined as a green zone? Often X meters of land bordering a farm are zoned as such, meaning what you plant and what you put in the soil are restricted. Check with the farmer, or with your Gemeinde if you don't know.

One tip for avoiding the manure sprayer... farmers spray the day before it rains. Watch the weather report (I believe I remember that a poster on another thread said that farmers often follow the aviation weather reports) - if it's fixin' to rain tomorrow, don't leave the laundry out and close the windows today. And if one farm inthe area is spraying, you can bet that all the others will be doing so soon.

Living 'auf dem Land' means that one adjusts to the community. The countryside is not a leafy suburb - this is where the needs of the working farm sets the tone.

But it's a great place to live. And think of all the money you'll save by not having to buy fertilizer.

Not surprising really, since most animals are outside during the summer months, so there would be no build up of farmyard manure..... one of the many useful things I learned while studying to be a Chartered Accountant

Quite, not surprising to me either (law degree not withstanding but living next to some of these animals grazing in the fields in the summer) but as the OP had (1) mentioned the nuisance of spraying in the summertime and (2) had got a little stroppy at his perception of people being sarcastic in their replies, I thought it sensible to treat this particular concern seriously and to address it.

In that case, I might as well sympathize. It sounds like a shitty situation!