The Farmers Mart Dec-Jan 2019 - Issue 60 | Page 22

22 FARM SECURITY
DEC/JAN 2019 • farmers-mart.co.uk
GENERAL FARM SECURITY TIPS
RURAL CRIME IS ON THE RISE
Despite average crime rates being lower
in rural areas, our 2018 Rural Crime Report
has discovered that the cost of crime in the
countryside is at its highest in five years.
Therefore, being vigilant and proactive in
protecting your farm, livestock and prop-
erty is a crucial part of rural life and with
that in mind, we have compiled a range of
general tips and practices to help keep your
farm safe and secure.
Protecting your farm / home
Most farms are much more than just
places of business, so any criminal activity
on a farmhouse can have both a finan-
cial and an emotional impact. Therefore,
home and farm security should be a major
priority of rural life. The following physical
precautions can help safeguard your home
and family:
• Ensure all doors, gates and windows
are locked when you leave the house,
even if you are still outside within your
property
• Keep house and car keys completely
out of sight
• Install fences and gates and ensure that
they are kept in good condition
• Store any high value items in a properly
secured safe or vault
• Keep dogs or geese to act as an early
warning system
• Display warning signs highlighting your
security measures
• Lay gravel rather than hard standing
around farm buildings.
Within modern farmhouse security there
are several highly efficient technological
devices that can help protect and monitor
your home. These include:
• CCTV cameras to monitor your proper-
ty and review any wrongdoing
• Security lighting for yards and drive-
ways
• Burglar alarms, complete with infra-red
motion detection. These should always
be positioned within prominent sight to
deter criminals
• Tracking and location devices that can
be fitted to valuables to aid recovery in
the instance of theft
• Geo fence alerts that inform you of any
trespassers as they enter a set bound-
ary.
In addition to contemporary technology,
a number of more traditional measures can
also help safeguard your property. These
medieval methods include:
• Creating earth banks, trenches and
ditches along field boundaries to pre-
vent criminals from driving 4x4s onto
farmland
Community
• Having single entry points. Ensuring
there is only one way in and out of a
property can deter thieves who will gen-
erally favour multiple exit strategies
• Installing heavily reinforced gates to pro-
tect farmyard entrances from ram raids
• Storing expensive tools and chemicals
within barricaded strong rooms.
Protecting your vehicles
The cost of farm vehicle theft rose by
£500,000 in 2017, with both new and vintage
vehicles proving an attractive target for
organised gangs looking to clone them for
sale domestically and internationally. NFU
Mutual’s Agricultural Vehicle Specialist Clive
Harris advocates that the most effective way
to safeguard a variety of agricultural vehicles
is by having multiple layers of security. For
in-depth advice on how to prevent vehicle
theft and measures you can take to improve
recovery chances should the worst happen.
Protecting your livestock
Livestock and wildlife crime is sadly an
all too familiar problem for the major-
ity of farmers, with both criminal and
public disturbances having a detrimental
effect on business. Insurance may often
cover the cost of treating or replacing
injured or stolen animals, but the effect
on breeding programmes can take years
to overcome. The following can help
protect livestock:
• Mark your animals using ear tags, horn-
brands, branding or tattooing
• Keep photographic records to aid in the
recovery of stolen animals
• Ensure you take a regular count of
livestock numbers
• Wrap and mark bales of haylage, bed-
ding and feed
• Install signs, warnings and notices that
warn potential walkers to keep their
dogs on a leash.
We believe that the best way to tackle
rural crime is to involve everyone within the
rural community. Creating a close, watchful
and interactive bond between farmers,
police and countryside residents is vital in
preventing crime and ensuring criminals are
brought to justice. There are a number of
ways in which everyone can work together
to tackle rural crime:
• Look out for your neighbours and be
aware of the increasing dangers of rural
crime
• Join a Farm Watch scheme to help or-
ganise security within the countryside
• Share suspicious sightings with the
local community
• Maintain links with the police – we are
involved in a number of schemes to
improve and sustain communication be-
tween police and farming businesses
• Report all crimes to the police. Un-
derreporting can create a detrimental
cycle by which rural crime is underes-
timated and therefore not prioritised or
sufficiently resourced.
Although the battle of rural crime is
spread across several fronts, taking precau-
tionary measures is vital in its prevention.
By proactively working together, rural
communities can play a key role in ensur-
ing farmers are able to continue to work
effectively.
https://www.nfumutual.co.uk/