Long Winter Ahead: UK Faces Lack of Straw
UK - Livestock farmers across the country may not have enough straw to last them through the winter if the summer rainfall cuts yields in half, experts have warned.
16 September 2008
1 minute read
For the second time in two years, livestock farmers are facing a significant financial hit with a shortage of straw for bedding likely to send prices through the roof and leave some farmers without any bedding at all, reports the Farmers Guardian.
Unless there is a major change in the weather to allow clean straw to be chopped and bailed, many farmers fear for the survival of their business.
One Yorkshire farmer’s wife summed up the mood for thousands of others. She told Farmers Guardian: “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.
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