Weather Distress For Farmers

Farmers in Yorkshire are suffering again as a result of the extreme weather conditions that we have all been experiencing this summer. The results will impact on everyone – with food prices set to rise once again as crops stand in fields.

The much talked about increase in farm output prices has been more than overtaken by the spiralling costs faced by farmers.

A poor harvest in the arable sector and an unfavourable forage harvest for the livestock sector, the financial resilience of even the best run farm businesses has been severely undermined.

Added to this, farmers are becoming more concerned about the impact on next season"e;s oil seed rape and cereal crops as planting is delayed because this year"e;s crops are yet to harvest or the ground is just too wet to travel on.

Livestock farmers are also feeling the pressure, not knowing whether they will have enough straw to see them through the long winter months.

One Yorkshire farmer"e;s wife tells her own story, "My husband is absolutely past himself, on the verge of completely breaking down.

Not only has the summer been an extremely hard one as he has constantly been bedding up the pigs and cattle as they have always been wet, he is now in the position that he cannot get the straw he needs off the land.

He is absolutely tired out. He has 2,500 pigs on straw throughout the year and 100 head of cattle, what if he can"e;t get that straw?

As ever, the whole family is suffering as a result of this weather, it isn"e;t just prices and yields, it"e;s the usual homestead stress that is having a real impact on all of us. This isn"e;t a sob story, this is how it is for us and thousands of other families."

The Farming Help Partnership charities have a wealth and breadth of experience in working with farming people.

The wide range of help and support that may be available through the charities includes: pastoral care and support, housing provision, domestic financial help, access to debt advice, provision for the disabled and elderly, access to professional farm business advice, help with state benefit claims, advocacy in technical farm problems e.g. with government agencies.

Relevant and appropriate support can be given in any farm-related situation, whatever the issues are.

Farming Help could assist farmers and their families during the current plight. They can be contacted on 0845 367 9990.