A little poo on country roads is a small price

And yes, there will inevitably be poo on the road. Welcome to the countryside, which is where I've made the choice to live.

I have been interested to read the back and forth in the texts section over livestock pooing on the roads in Wairarapa.

I've only lived here a bit over a year, and I know perfectly well that even with my floppy hat, waxed jacket and red-tabbed gumboots, it would only take a farmer about five seconds of conversation with me to realise the editor of the Times-Age is not hugely knowledgeable about farming.

I am a definitely townie, prone to saying things like: "oh, look at the cows" as I watch them make their leisurely way, without guidance, to the milking machines (I still can't get over that cows wander there without help).

Yet I'm not without some clues - and plenty of respect.

I'm not in Churton Park (a reasonably well-do-to suburb of Wellington) any more. I'm no longer among residents who worry about the damage to their ornamental flax while Chorus lay their ultra-fast broadband cable.

I'm living in residentially zoned land in Featherston, a decent stone's throw from the colossal industry that is farming. On my residential street, I have the right to expect certain behaviour, and I pick up after my dog poop.

But once I'm out in the rural zone, as far as I'm concerned, I'm entering a workplace.

I might be on a legal road (and I have no patience for this paper road bollocks that ramblers used to have a craze for), but if I'm driving to Lake Wairarapa to walk my dogs and there's a milk tanker coming my way, I pull right over. He's working. I'm not. If there's stock on the road, I slow right down, stop, and chill out while the drovers (do they still call them that?) do their job.

And yes, there will inevitably be poo on the road. Welcome to the countryside, which is where I've made the choice to live.

So, I may be a townie. But I appreciate the sheer weight and enormity of farming in Wairarapa. There is a part of me that worries about effluent run-off in our rivers - I believe it is a real problem brought about by that weight of rural industry today. But cows have been pooping on our roads for decades. If you live in the country, you've got to expect a bit of muck.