Farm charity prepared for snow-stricken farmers

The Farming Community Network (FCN) is anticipating a hike in calls to its helpline, as farmers face the repercussions of months of wet and freezing weather.

At the end of last year FCN started to see an increase in the number of calls to its helpline, and the trend has continued into 2013.

“People contact us with a wide range of concerns, but lots of problems we’re hearing about are based on farmers having to buy in extra silage and winter feed,” said FCN’s Peter Riley. “A lot of farmers are facing major feed bills.”

At the moment farmers are busy dealing with their immediate problems – digging out and feeding livestock – but Mr Riley said the charity was “anticipating a lot more calls in the weeks and months to come”.

Encouragingly, helpline volunteers have also had calls from members of the public asking how they can help and offering donations.