Rock Picking in Farmfields... etiquette?

PrincessFerf · #1 04/16/10, 06:02 PM

This may seem like an insane question to ask.. but I'll do it anyway.

I have a need for more rocks in some gardening projects I'm working on... and I often drive by farms between home and work and see lots of melon-sized or larger rocks in newly plowed fields.

Do farmers care if people take the rocks or do they use them? Would it be more appropriate for me to approach the farmers and ask? (I couldn't just walk onto someone's property and just take the rocks anyway, that would be stealing in my book.)

I'm sure they don't want them in the fields, it would be a nuisance when they start planting, correct?

I don't want to ask for their rocks if farmers generally use them for something else.

okiemom · #2 04/16/10, 06:16 PM

I wish you lived closer. I had a guy drive up and ask us if he could pick up rocks from our pasture. He was really polite, told us he would sign a liability waiver and would come during a time it was good for us.

I was really worried about the liability thing but I really also thought it was a win/win. Hw needed the rocks for a garden rock wall and didn't have the money to buy the rocks at the stores, I nneded the rocks removed. Too bad he didn't take a few humdred tons more

. I think it is stupid to pay so much for rocks, that is until I started lugging them around.

I think most people would be glad to have you pick up rocks.

luvrulz · #3 04/16/10, 06:19 PM

I would be happy to have you ap[proach me and pick up my rocks! Knock on their door and hopefully, you'll find someone like minded! Good luck!

plowjockey · #4 04/16/10, 06:32 PM

FWIW, a rock used be be a rock, but now it's yet another item of value.

The farmer may be collecting them to sell to a rock "dealer", who will resell them to landscapers for big bucks. They go high around here.

Or, he may just rather have them gone. Always good to ask.

PrincessFerf · #5 04/16/10, 06:37 PM

The farms on either side of us don't care if I take the rocks... we jokingly call it my spring "rock shopping". One has a rock wall on the far end of the farm that they said I could also take from, but because of the layout and hilly access from the road, it makes it more difficult.

I'll plan to talk with them first. I hadn't even thought of the liability question.

RideBarefoot · #6 04/16/10, 06:41 PM

That was always the worst summertime job- picking rocks out of fields! Yes, they do damage equipment, I would have been thrilled as a kid if someone would have offered to do it!

airotciv · #7 04/16/10, 06:48 PM

I will give you all the rocks you want. Right now the rocks are being used to keep the goats happy. Yes a big pile of rocks, makes goats happy.

beaglebiz · #8 04/16/10, 07:08 PM

Our PA fieldstone rocks are being shipped to NY and NJ for "rustic" rock walls. Stealing from already built walls is rampant. Id ask, just to make sure

paintlady · #9 04/16/10, 07:18 PM

Wish you lived here! We have lots of rocks to pick for free! LOL.

7thswan · #10 04/16/10, 08:10 PM

Yes, ask, I'm sure they will let you "pick" away. Please ask tho,trespassing is not nice. The pick size would be the ones you can pick up without a machine. The big ones are worth $$.

big rockpile · #11 04/16/10, 08:27 PM

How many years of picking do you have? Come by Monday we will talk.

big rockpile

RonM · #12 04/16/10, 08:45 PM

When I was farming I hated rocks, you were always tearing up something after hitting rocks. I used to hire local kids and pick them up by the wagon loads....... If you are picking up rocks and you see someone coming out with a gun , garantee he is coming out to keep people away from you so you can get the rocks....

Danaus29 · #13 04/16/10, 09:04 PM

My grandpa didn't let people pick rocks. There were too many pretty ones and too many artifacts for him to allow anyone on his fields to pick rocks. I have 20 or 30 gallons of rocks I picked from those fields, plus some nice arrowheads and a pipe stem.

ETA, big ones usually ended up in a highly visible spot near the house. He would stop the tractor, load them up, and carry them home. Grandma wasn't thrilled with his collection but he had some really nice ones.

**clovis** · #14 04/16/10, 09:35 PM

Definately, without a doubt, ask permission before picking rocks. Always, always ask permission first!!!!!!

texican · #15 04/16/10, 09:36 PM

Most folks won't shoot you for asking. Some folks would shoot if you didn't ask.

I'd ask first...

I'd be unfriendly if I caught someone gleaning anything off my place. Ask, and if it's something that's in my way, I'd have no problems...

Ken Scharabok · #16 04/17/10, 12:43 AM

One of my earliest memories is rock picking in WI. As I recall Dad had a pull behind the tractor device called a rock or stone boat. Oldest four kids had to heave rocks in it and then they were thrown into a sink hole. I and younger sister rode the tractor and actually steered it (set in granny gear). Recall dad saying in that area (slightly NW of Milwaukee) rocks were the field's winter crop.

Recall reading somewhere one of the early DuPonts imported labor from Ireland to build rock walls in DE. Walls are probably state protected now.

Locally in the creeks were have what is called chert - gravel/rocks fist size and smaller, plus sand. A local guy hauls them off my gravel bars by the dump truck load. Requires a state permit, which is mostly to make sure you understand water pollution requirements (e.g., you can't do so in a manner which silts up the water going downstream). I have used them extensively on field roads and in French drains.

I think twice in the past 18 years someone has asked for some for landscraping. Heck, I only have maybe a million tons of them available.

Like sustainable agriculture. Every high water the garvel bars build back up, and, according to property deeds, can redefine property lines (when they shift) when defined as the center of the deepest part of the flowing creek. Technically in some areas I own one bank, neighbor another and state in-between as they have control of usage. For example I couldn't dam up the creek to create a deep water pool but the beavers are free to do so.

Joshie · #17 04/17/10, 12:47 AM

Don't ever go on anybody else's property without asking. Sorry if I sound harsh but I just ran somebody off my property today. It is polite to ask and it's theft if you don't.

cab · #18 04/17/10, 07:29 AM

Funny how after the recent large meteor event in SW Wisconsin now everyone wants to rock pick in the farmer's fields to get "landscape rocks"......

PrincessFerf · #19 04/17/10, 08:09 AM

Ken, we live a little more than slightly NW of Milwaukee. I'm not interested in meteor "droppings", the scientists and collectors can have them (I hadn't even thought about the people who probably want to hunt for meteor pieces!).

The only sized-rocks I'm after are ones I can carry with my aging hands. I do have a "submarine" in one of my gardens that I'll probably need a tractor to finally pull out. I don't know how far down it goes yet.

And yes, rocks are a winter crop around here, LOL!!!! I know enough of the farm owners around me that after talking with them I should have all the rocks I'll ever need.

Harry Chickpea · #20 04/17/10, 10:01 AM

Strange as it seems... rocks migrate. The action of the winter frost, plowing of the soil, and water actually churn rocks from the subsoil to the surface and back down again. Scientific American did an article on the phenomenon a few years back. I had a lovely crop of small rocks this spring.