Farmers struggle to provide for Christmas dinners

More than a week of snow and freezing temperatures has seen farmers forced to dip into their stocks of fodder and silage early in order to keep their animals fed while frozen pipes have proved problematic for farmers.

There was also the suggestion that some livestock farmers may struggle to get animals destined for the region's Christmas dinner plates to market in time, with many trapped by snow and ice.

There were also fears of a shortage of Brussels sprouts with frozen ground making harvesting impossible. Sprouts are worth 54m to the British economy but around 67 per cent are harvested in the run-up to Christmas.

A spokeswoman for the National Farmers Union in Yorkshire said: "Livestock farmers face crucial problems, particularly when it comes to getting fodder out to them. I know there many who are very anxious about this situation.

"Diesel is another problem as farmers are using their tractors and quads much more than they normally do as they need to get food out to their animals.

"Where the snow is very deep the use of quads is proving difficult."

The situation is exacerbated by the fact that there is already a worrying shortage of silage and fodder following the very dry spring and summer.

"No-one expected to be getting through this much so early on."

The spokeswoman added that as now is the time when beef and lamb would traditionally be sent for slaughter in time for Christmas week but that some farmers were having difficulty getting their animals off of their farms.

"People are thinking about their joint for Christmas day and the animals for this should be going off of farms around now. Of course this mounts up the expense for farmers too as if they are not going off the farm they need to feed them for longer."

Last winter saw many dairy farmers cut off from supply tankers due to the snow, with many forced to pour milk down the drain. However, apart from a couple of incidents in North Derbyshire this seems to being avoided for the time being.

The cold weather has led to rural insurer NFU Mutual receiving hundreds of claims from country people hit by the conditions, with particular concern mounting about farm building roofs collapsing and putting farm animals and their owners at risk.

Matthew Scott, NFU Mutual claims manager advised farmers to take extreme care when attempting to clear snow from building roofs.