Booms keep farmers from going bust
BOOM bang-a-bang, boom bang-a-bang when you are near ...
So ran Lulu’s entry in the 1969 Eurovision Song Contest – but the lines could equally be applied to some of Scotland’s countryside at the moment as farmers deploy bird scarers to stop our feathered friends flattening and damaging their crops.
While most of us would avoid using these noisy devices if we could, with the crops almost ripe but the weather too unsettled to make any major advances with the harvest, birds such as rooks and pigeons are taking advantage.
And though we don’t begrudge them a bite to eat, it’s the fact they knock far more of the crop to the ground and simply leave it to rot there that really gets a farmer’s goat.
So, while it can be a bit of a shock to suddenly hear the loud boom which these gas guns make, it does no more than give the birds a sufficient scare to encourage them to move away from the grain crops.
It’s a bit like the one o’clock gun in Edinburgh – which the locals hardly notice, while those in town for the festival or sightseeing tend to jump a mile when it goes off. But out on the farms the gas guns – or bangers as they’re widely known – are in widespread use this year.
That’s because the growing season has seen the stems and straw of a lot of the crops grow longer than normal.
This means it’s more likely to get knocked down by the wind and the rain – and while that can normally be picked up by the combine after the birds have danced about on it, there’s no getting it harvested.
So farmers and growers are asking for a bit of patience from those living and working near cropped areas.
But of course farmers need to show bit a bit of understanding as well – and realise not everyone in the countryside is up at the crack of dawn.
And to reduce the impact of these scares on the public and to ensure proper use, there are specific guidelines for farmers.
Basically, they should only used as a last resort – and shouldn’t really be firing between the hours of 10pm and 6am or 7am (depending on sunrise).
Some sort of deflector or baffling device should also be used to concentrate the sound on to the field and away from any neighbours who might not have a full appreciation of how important it is to keep the crops safe.
For, despite what Lulu sang, no one wants boom bang-a-bang loud in their ear.