Snow-hit sheep recovery continues
Farmers are continuing to recover dead sheep from snow drifts as they count the cost of the coldest March for 50 years.
In Cumbria, sheep farmer Tom Lorains, who keeps 300 mainly Herdwick and Swaledale feel sheep, said he had pulled around six dead sheep out of 6ft snow drifts.
The true scale of the losses would only become evident once the snow melted, he said.
Mr Lorains said he started lambing in mid-March and had been feeding ewes more to keep them in condition when they would normally go out on the grass.
“We have been taking hay and concentrates out to sheep that would not normally be fed at this time,” said Mr Lorains, a tenant farmer at High Snab Farm, in Newlands Valley, near Keswick.
“It’s costing us twice as much money to feed them this year and with rising feed costs, I just don’t know where we’re going to be at the end of the season in September.
“If lamb sales are down, we are going to have a crippling year.”
This March is set to be the coldest since 1962 and the fourth coldest on record in the UK, according to provisional Met Office statistics.
From 1 to 26 March the UK mean temperature was 2.5C, which is three degrees below the long-term average, the Met Office said.
Looking at individual countries, it was likely to be the 4th coldest on record for England, joint third coldest for Wales, joint 8th coldest for Scotland and 6th coldest for Northern Ireland.
In Wales, Bala sheep and beef farmer Emyr Jones said the weather was the worst he had experienced during 50 years of lambing.
“Most farmers are spending a lot more money looking after their animals,” he said.
“Farmers are having to buy in fodder, but the quality of silage and hay is not the best. How can we expect to feed the sheep on grass that’s either not there in the first place, or covered in snow?”
Mr Jones, who is also president of the Farmers’ Union of Wales, has been lambing for five weeks on the family farm at Rhiwaedog, Rhosygwaliau.
“The ewes are not milking as they should and they are having difficulty producing enough milk for two lambs,” he added.
Mr Jones said he was fortunate in suffered no losses on the farm, which extends to 144ha (356 acres) and carries 1,100 sheep and 60 suckler cows.
“We bought an articulated load of straw, 8ft x 4ft Heston straw bales, about a fortnight ago. We took them to the fields and used them to shelter animals from the easterly wind and the snow.”
But other livestock producers in north Wales have been less lucky, with some farmers suffering significant losses, especially in the Snowdonia region.
“This is the best day we have had for nearly a fortnight,” said Mr Jones on Tuesday (2 April).
“The sun is coming out, which is what we need. If we get a couple of days of warmer weather the snow will melt away.
“When it does, I’m sure that farmers will find dead sheep and lambs. There will be huge amounts of losses.”