"A salvage job"
Posted: Friday 9 April, 2010
It was heartbreaking to read in today's "Scottish Farmer" about the losses suffered by some Scottish sheep farmers due to the terrible weather. One farmer had lost between 150 and 200 lambs, all his Bluefaced Leicester tups and ten feeding sheep. Another experienced a snowfall of 21 inches in 24 hours, followed by flooding and three days without power. Many expressed concern about the condition of hill ewes, which will lamb in a couple of weeks.
It's sometimes easy, in the warmth of the supermarket, to forget how hard our farmers work, especially when the weather is so difficult and unpredictable. I, for one, take my hat off to them.
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Jo@LittleFfarm Dairy
Saturday 10 April, 2010 at 12:59pm
A very poignant comment, & a valid one. It makes me sad when consumers moan about the 'high' price of food & the supermarkets drive an increasingly hard bargain to get their 'pound of flesh' from already hard-pressed farmers. The editorial in the front of Farmers' Weekly said a similar thing, too; focusing on the plight & yet determination, of dairy farmers.
The farmer on the hill above us only has a handful of ewes, now; but he lost so many lambs in that last cold snap thathe's said he is giving up, it's too disheartening to carry on after so many lean & bad-weather years.
For our part we'll keep on, keeping on....