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As we enter April, the stress and tumult of Lambing season is finally starting to wane for many farmers. The wireless breeding camera kits are all installed, providing a quick and easy way to monitor the animals, and farmers can begin to turn their attention to other pressing matters. Unfortunately, for many farmers this means addressing security issues caused by farm trespassing. With an isolated rural location, farms can often be a target for thieves and vandals, especially areas far away from the main farm buildings. There are also some types of criminals who specifically target farms. Preventing this can be incredibly frustrating, but is possible.
Whilst not strictly limited to farmers, fly tipping is the bane of rural communities up and down the country. Unscrupulous tradesmen loaded down with trash are fond of finding a quiet secluded lane to dump van loads of garbage, leaving the hapless land owners to deal with it. Often this includes material such as fridges that cannot simply be thrown out, and have to be properly decommissioned so as to avoid the release of toxic chemicals. Farm driveways are a common location to be targeted by such vandals, as they are often far away from the farm buildings and offer cover from the road.
Another problem unique to rural areas is that of diesel theft. Farmers have access to red-dyed diesel fuel with significantly reduced tax costs, for use solely in agricultural and non-road going vehicles. As they store this on their land, it inevitably becomes a target for thieves looking to score a supply of free fuel. Wastage from this can greatly increase the cost of keeping these vehicles running. Trying to catch out the perpetrators for both of these crimes can be tricky, as due to their nature they will happen in areas without access to power, and much too far away from a building to practically run cabling. As with so many similar security scenarios in remote locations, the natural solution is one of our battery powered hunting cameras. Regular readers of this blog may well be familiar with these little devices, but we keep on coming back to them because there seems to be no end to the uses that they lend themselves to! They run entirely from standard AA batteries, and record stills or video straight to an internal MicroSD card. This means that they don’t have to be connected to any external devices, and can be left to work in remote areas on a completely standalone basis. The built-in passive infra-red (PIR) sensors can detect changes in ambient temperature, and trigger recording whenever they detect movement. These sensors also allow the camera to remain on an energy saving standby mode for weeks at a time.
For more permanent installations, we also stock a rugged metal case to help protect the camera. The housing is designed to completely encase the camera, whilst still leaving room to allow the PIR sensors to work. This help prevent the camera from being damaged whilst in use, and also prevents any unauthorised users accessing the controls to change settings. The case has also been designed with a loop to allow you to secure the camera to a fixed base with a bike lock. Whilst this does make the installation a bit less covert, it makes the camera- and your recordings- far more secure should they be found.
