Farm groups call for livestock burial extension

The Country Land and Business Association has called for the temporary exemption for burying livestock perished by the recent extreme weather conditions to be extended until the end of April.

The Association wrote to Farming Minister David Heath, who recently visited Cumbria to meet farmers affected by the levels of snow and livestock fatalities, to urge extra time to bury their fallen stock. Some CLA members reported up to half of their breeding stock had perished.

"We are hugely appreciative of the Government's derogation in the first place" said CLA President Harry Cotterell.

"However, in areas of England where permission has been granted, farmers are still unable to bury fallen stock because of the frozen or inaccessible ground. They may have so many deaths they are unable to manage them all."

Livestock farmers recently said the Government and the National Fallen Stock Company had 'neglected' to enact measures which could help make a difference.

The National Farmers' Union spent a week of negotiations with Defra officials to appeal for financial help to allow the free collection and professional disposal of dead animals.

Of the recent visit to Cumbria by Heath, an NFU spokesman said: "The NFU is pleased that the minister has finally listened to the many requests to visit Cumbria.

"At this moment in time Mr Mackintosh and members of the NFU Cumbria are seeing if they can persuade Mr Heath to release monies to pay for the disposal of the sheep carcasses."

In a joint letter addressed to the Welsh Minister for Natural Resources and Food, Alun Davies, by the CLA, FUW, NFU and Wales YFC, the farm groups said the the 'gravity of the position on some farms' following the blizzard conditions has been a 'harrowing experience for those affected.'

"Such losses have compounded the dramatic fall in farm incomes already seen in statistics produced by the Welsh Government."

The letter said farmers 'are not seeking to be advantaged' but asked for parity of treatment with others 'suffering similar consequences.'

Although Defra announced a limited relaxation of the rules to allow farmers to burn or bury dead stock on farm, the NFU says Defra has so far refused to take the one single action that would really help farmers by committing to a package to collect those dead animals and dispose of them responsibly. This has left farmers to shoulder the burden of cleaning up these animals which may end up costing thousands of pounds.

NFU livestock board chairman Charles Sercombe said: "In some areas of the country, we could be talking of huge losses for individual farms. No-one wants to see piles of burning animals in the countryside - it is not practical or desirable to dig pits to bury large numbers on-farm. It also flies in the face of what we have been told over the past few years from government about dealing with dead livestock responsibly.

"The only other options are for the farmers to pay someone to collect their dead sheep, or for them to load up their own lifeless flock into farm trailers and drive miles across the countryside to the knackers yard. This is yet another pressure for farmers who have been brought to their knees by a year that has seen upland livestock farm incomes halved, topped by the worst spring snow in living memory.

"It is not fair or reasonable for government to expect families who have spent the past week digging their animals out of the snow to deal with the clean up entirely by themselves. We are not ungrateful for the measures that Government have announced but they are requiring farmers to do things which are simply not practical in the situation which they face.

Farmers' Union of Wales President Emyr Jones, who lost stock on his Bala farm, said natural resources and food minister Alun Davies' decision to extend the current derogation for on-farm burial until April 16 with the addition of parts of north Ceredigion was the least he could do.

"He has also announced a review of how farm businesses will cope with future difficult circumstances arising from extreme weather conditions but that is little help for farmers suffering livestock losses, damaged buildings and fodder shortages right now," said Mr Jones.

"Most upland farmers coming to the end of what has been a disastrous lambing season this year are unlikely to have the energy or time to consider a whole farm plan at the moment and it is likely to be several weeks before the full extent of the losses can be determined.

"Despite the minister's assertion that there must be an inherent weakness in an industry 'if a single year of reduced prices, together with the difficult weather, causes such apparent economic disruption to the sector', for those farmers who have lost a significant proportion of their breeding stock, plus this year's crop of lambs due to the freak weather, this statement is insensitive to say the least.

"All the minister is offering are a few crumbs of comfort which will do little to alleviate the crisis facing Welsh farming now and in the longer term."