The UK farming community is getting stroppy about crop circles and their visitors…


The agricultural community has, inevitably, not always been very happy about the prospect of its fields being flattened, whether it be by ETs, natural forces – or plankers. And to the National Farmers’ Union (NFU), visitors to the resultant works don’t help matters either.

Some farmers in Wiltshire are becoming increasingly militant about preventing or deterring people from entering their fields, including, worryingly, some who had previously been tolerant of visitors. At least two formations this season have had their essential components cut out by combines to wipe out any reason to visit, whilst another has had high barbed wire piled around the entrances to the field.

With this heightened battle in mind, the NFU has recently issued a statement designed to deter both plankers and visitors, though it does not address, unsurprisingly, any other potential sources of crop flattening… The statement reads:

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FARMERS' WARNING TO DETER CROP CIRCLERS

“Cereal farmers are warning would-be crop circlers to consider the impact that their damaging activities have on farmers' livelihoods.

An NFU spokesman for the NFU SE combinable crops board said:

"This is not an order to "get off our land". We're appealing to anyone who is considering creating a crop circle to think twice. Creating crop circles is akin to trampling over someone's back garden - it is unfair and irresponsible. Crop circlers seem to forget that they are damaging someone's property and there's a financial implication," said the spokesman.

The NFU also wishes to deter "crop circle tourists" who park their cars in gateways and then walk through the crops to get a closer look at the patterned field. They are often tempted to walk around the crop circle as well.

"The crops, which have been carefully nurtured, cannot be harvested easily when they've been knocked flat," explained the spokesman. "But people who walk in the crop circle trample the crops down further and then they really do become impossible to harvest."

The NFU believes that the vast majority of crop circles are man-made, although various natural and unorthodox explanations have been put forward for these phenomena.”

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Despite speaking about the “vast majority”, it is interesting to note that the statement does not say ALL crop circles are man-made. So, encouragingly, someone at the NFU is hedging their bets.

The NFU statement did receive some television and radio coverage in local regions. Ironically, the Sussex-based farmer who spoke on BBC South TV then received a new crop circle just days after his appearance…