Farming to the Edge of the Road - Depression

Bill VA · Apr 7, 2016

The post below about using the roads for a headland reminded me......

My Mother's family pretty much grew up in the 20's and 30's. Funny thing is - while it was a hard working life, it was a very good life. The memories related to me were/are blanketed with pride and satisfaction - hard to explain. There were 9 kids including her in that family and I use to hang out with most of them - and they left an unforgettable impression.

But.....

One of the pictures I was shown one time (which I don't have) was a picture of a cultivated farm field - right up to the edge of the old dirt road. The message was - during those times, the depression, for them, survival meant literally farming every square inch of tillable land.

Bill

sms · Apr 7, 2016

We traveled across Canada in 1974 and I remember farmers haying the shoulders and medians of the highway. Don't know if it is still done. Also the signs were still up about no vehicles with wheel lugs or flanges allowed on highway.

LAA · Apr 7, 2016

When you farm with horses or mules and harvest by hand you don't need much turn-row.

Brendon-KS · Apr 7, 2016

Seeing round bales in the bar ditches and medians of state highways is quite common here in Kansas. It's not just a free-for-all - it requires a contract with the state which specifies exactly what section of the highway a particular individual can make hay on.

johnpop1 · Apr 7, 2016

Here, in central NYS, there is nothing uncommon in farming as close to the road as the topography allows.

Dick2 · Apr 7, 2016

Most places there is just too much litter in the grass along the highways to make good hay, not to mention all the things that can puncture a tractor tire.

In the dry years of the late 30's and the early 40's in ND, us kids herded our cattle along the ditches of the county roads where there was more green grass than in our pasture. Of course, there wasn't much vehicle traffic then to bother the cattle.

db4600 · Apr 7, 2016

Cars and travel was different, if they had a car. Society was different. A lot less utilities in the road right of way, if there was a road right of way. I've been in parts of the country where crops creep up to the roads. Now MNDoT mandates a clearance at intersections and it makes sense from a safety stand point.

Dachshund · Apr 7, 2016

Not much "farming to the road" around here, unless it would be on a "minimum maintenance" road way out in the boonies. There IS a headstone out in a field near here, that has several small headstones leaning up against it. It seems all of the graves from a cemetery were moved years ago - except 10 or 12. They have just been farming over the top of them. When they kick up another stone, they toss it against the big one and go on....

Brendon-KS · Apr 7, 2016

I agree - it doesn't look like a fun way to put up hay. A relative of my wife's has a contract for about ten miles of state highway and hearing him talk I wonder if it is really worth the headache.

brutus49DC · Apr 7, 2016

All of the fields used to have fences around here. The right a way on a township road is 33 feet from the center of the road. Many have reduced this distance over the years. I have an 80 that we are going to move the boundry back and seed down to hay. They are starting to enforce the set backs around here and have seen the state go in with a batwing mower and knock down the crop which is ok with me.

Dave Sherburne, NY · Apr 7, 2016

Farmer here went from haylage to baleage a few years ago. He told me he never used to find much trash in the mangers after feeding, but with baleage he gets all kinds of trash in the mangers now.

dhermesc · Apr 7, 2016

God help you if you buy that crap. Who wants to feed everything from dirty diapers to broken beer bottles to their animals?

keith427 · Apr 7, 2016

As a kid in the 70's I remember my dad opening a gap in the fence and we would graze our cows along the county road ditch.

NY 986 · Apr 7, 2016

People were generally more responsible and considerate back then. Where I live today a person needs to be concerned with the possibility of being sued if my actions affect a roadway and somebody has a serious accident and/or fatality. Sometimes a person has to think past what he may consider being considerate in his farming practices to avoid liability.

Russ from MN · Apr 7, 2016

I think it's probably the same here in MN.

RayP(MI) · Apr 7, 2016

Yeah, they have the right to 33 feet, but if they're not using it, and I can farm it (or part of it,) I'm going to farm right out to the edge of whatever they are using, without getting in the actually used right-of-way. Don't believe we are required to leave it open just in case they might need it. Have had snowmobilers and 4wheel toy drivers tell me they "OWN" that 33 feet. Nope, not if I'm farming it. Township can take up to the 33 feet, and if they want more then they have to pay for it. Otherwise, it's still mine.

oldtanker · Apr 7, 2016

(quoted from post at 06:43:00 04/07/16) Yeah, they have the right to 33 feet, but if they're not using it, and I can farm it (or part of it,) I'm going to farm right out to the edge of whatever they are using, without getting in the actually used right-of-way. Don't believe we are required to leave it open just in case they might need it. Have had snowmobilers and 4wheel toy drivers tell me they "OWN" that 33 feet. Nope, not if I'm farming it. Township can take up to the 33 feet, and if they want more then they have to pay for it. Otherwise, it's still mine.

Actually depending on the state they, the wheelers, can within the right or way if legal drive all over whatever you planted in that 33 feet and you have no recourse of action. Here in MN you wouldn't be paying rent on it nor would you have permission to farm any part of that 33 feet. So they could sit out there all day turning doughnuts in it! Bet MI is the same. Just because you planted it doesn't make it yours nor does it prevent anyone else from using that right of way.

Rick

Rick

Nick m · Apr 7, 2016

Not true in Michigan. I had a problem with
people helping themselves to asparagus and
wood in the road right of way. I talked to
a dnr officer about it and she told me they
were trespassing and stealing from me. Told
me to get a license plate number and they'd
handle it. She said the only people that
have any right to do anything outside the
actual road in the right of way are whoever
maintains the road and needs to be there for
whatever reason.

Nick m · Apr 7, 2016

Absolutely correct. See my experience above.

GordoSD · Apr 7, 2016

We call it "Beer can hay" here.

BobinSD · Apr 7, 2016

Nick m is spot on for the last two placed I've lived. Not sure what the deal is in SD. I'm required to mow the ditch, but other roads have the ditches (and the median strips on the interstate) leased out for hay. Not sure if that's a state/county/township thing or varies by each road. I do know that they have strict dates, can't cut the hay before a certain date, must be cut by a certain date.

VADAVE · Apr 7, 2016

In the last places where I own property you may in fact own the ground all the way to the middle of the road. And you are paying taxes on it. The state or county just what they want to ; park on your crops, cut donuts or drive over your fields. If you call them on it they'll just look at you and then do it any way. Wait till they want something then it becomes a different matter and you can nicely get these people will respect you.
Example: One of the local kids turned his car over in the road, then ran across my corn field on into the woods. I happen to see the local fire department dragging their sorry butts over that 9 inch tall corn and asked what was going on seem they thought the kid needs help. I just looked at the lead fireman and the state cop and said that the edge of the woods was about 15 to 50 foot drop depending on where you go in and if he wasn't crying he would come out on the cross road, which he did. So I wound up with the cops, the firemen going AND out over the corn for no need. Until the local county Mountie wanted to hunt coons, now they seem to listen.

RayP(MI) · Apr 7, 2016

In Michigan you own to the middle of the road and pay taxes on it. (Assuming road is centered on property line.) They can use up to 33 feet for road and right of way. Any more and they gotta pay for it. If they don't use all 33 feet, you are free to farm it. At least that is the way it works out here. That doesn't give anyone the right to trasspass and destroy property.

rrlund · Apr 7, 2016

Old Art Addis used to put his electric fences so close to the road,they say once in a while a broken post will still work its way up through the blacktop down on Sidney street.

brutus49DC · Apr 7, 2016

The right of ways are not for farming. They are right of ways that law abiding people are supposed to respect. I suppose you are like many that think that extra feet will make you rich. I would surely enjoy mowing your crop down to the 33' line. Wait until someone gets killed because the visibility at an intersection was restricted because crops in the right of way being planted by people with your line of thinking.

paul · Apr 7, 2016

Road ditch hay is the common way to feed horses and cattle around here.

Folks fight over it.

Its a valuable part of farming in my part of the world.

Paul

David G · Apr 7, 2016

The US has nothing on Ireland, they put their stone fences right on the edge of the road.

oldtanker · Apr 7, 2016

IN states where the land owner owns to the center of the road they may have the right to farm the right of way. Here in MN we don't own to the center of the road. If I did own to the center of the road and was forced to pay taxes on it I'd send them a yearly bill for rent! Wonder how the courts would rule on that?

Rick

Lowell Gehring · Apr 7, 2016

I am a foreman on the pavement crew in Sumner Co. Ks, the wheat capital of the world. Here we have a huge problem with farming to the road. A large part of the farmers farm to the road. They slowly fill the ditches.Then complain when drainage doesn't work. We can't keep up cleaning the ditches. It is so bad that the State had to spend money to install right away markers about as often as electric poles. Most of them just get farmed over. Seems silly to spend tax dollars to clean ditches when they are filled by selfishness and greed. Our bosses are afraid of farmers.

Greg1959 · Apr 7, 2016

oldtanker- Better yet....put up a toll booth on your half of the road! LOL!

Old Scovy · Apr 7, 2016

Well let me tell you about the old man. I was about 8 years old and I remember this like it was yesterday. We had an old 35 ford pickup that was not in very good shape but we made due with it. The old man was not a good driver in fact he shouldn't ever have driven. Any way this day the old man went out the drive way like always, the motor going 90 miles an hr. slipping the clutch and just when he would get to the road he would go right into high gear and the old thing would shake and smoke something awful. We got to the road and a man in a station wagon was coming, The old man pulled right out in front of the poor man and ran him off the road out in our wheat field. Blowing his horn. The old man stopped and the poor man came up to the truck and was he ever mad. He yells at the old man and says what's the matter with you ? You pulled right in front of me. The old man says Your supposed to look out of my road. The poor man says what to heck do you think you own the road ? The old man says I do own it. the deed calls to the center of the road and I own both sides. This is a true story and this is just what my old man was like back in the 40's The old man has been gone over 50 years now but I still like to tell of some of his stupid doings. ...Thanks ...Jack

ss55 · Apr 7, 2016

Are you sure you don't still own the land to the center of the road in MN? The roadway was probably built on an easement through your property. If the road is moved or abandon it goes back to the current landowner. One way to check is: are your roads spaced on an even one mile grids, or are they spaced at one mile plus 66 foot increments to fit a full 640 acres inside the right of ways?

ss55 · Apr 7, 2016

If that works I have half a bridge you can buy. I'm pretty sure my neighbor would sell you his half of the bridge too.

More seriously, with declining rural populations and increasing size of farm equipment, I wonder how long rural counties will still be able to afford to replace old bridges and rebuild gravel roads without severely raising the taxes on the adjoining farmland. In many urban areas, the city pays half of the cost of improvements and the adjoining homeowners are accessed the other half on a cost per foot basis. Most farmers would howl bloody murder if they were accessed one quarter of the cost to rebuild a half mile of road or one quarter of the cost to replace a bridge. In the future it could make sense to just abandon many of those old roads or change them to minimum maintenance roads. Land-locked farms would still retain the right to cross neighbor's fields to access their land.

JMS/.MN · Apr 7, 2016

In MN we do own to the center of the road, but house lots in town do not.

Farming to the Edge of the Road - Depression

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