大象传媒 Scotland - 大象传媒 Scotland - 拢20,000 and counting: why 2017鈥檚 wet spring and summer are still costing Scottish farmers dear

拢20,000 and counting: why 2017鈥檚 wet spring and summer are still costing Scottish farmers dear

10 January 2018

Ayrshire farmer Willie Campbell has had to spend eye-watering amounts of money to keep his cattle alive over the winter, as a direct result of last year’s downpours.

Like others in the industry he would use spring wheat to make cattle food such as silage or hay. But to get the best from the grass there must be long periods of dry weather, as prolonged wet spells leads to rotting.

that he had to spend all his farm’s profits on buying imported feed, because wet weather ruined his crop.

“I’ve been farming for more than 50 years - I never thought I’d see the day when [the silage pit] would be empty at this time of year,” he said.

“It should be almost filled to the brim with whole crop silage. That’s basically spring wheat which we’ve grown on our land – 65-70 acres of it – we didn’t manage to get any of that this year.”

Buying in food for the cattle was one unwanted extra cost, but another was the £20,000 Willie had to spend on machinery required to mix the new supplies in order to make it palatable.

“The additional costs are quite horrendous. There’s the equipment, there’s the cost of running it and then there’s the additional cost of the ingredients”, explained Willie.

All this extra spend means that every litre of milk from Willie’s farm is costing 8p more to produce than it should.

Willie is pragmatic about the situation, “It’s not sustainable,” he said. “But we’ve got a business here, and we’ve got to get through this somehow.”

Anna Hill presents stories about food and farming, including the Scottish silage shortage and the scientist who has discovered how to fast-breed wheat.