Latest news with #hay
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Climate
- Yahoo
York farmer 'will struggle to feed animals' as drought hits hay production
A farmer in York has said she will struggle to feed her animals after the dry weather and heat slashed her hay yields. Angela Serino is the director of Beetle Bank Open Farm & Wild Sanctuary in Moor Lane, Murton - a small, open, working farm where the public can visit the animals. Beetle Bank, which has goats, pigs, alpacas and rabbits, grows its own hay on 10 acres of land to feed the animals through winter until April when farmers typically buy a few bales until the next hay cut. But with Yorkshire experiencing one of its driest years on record, Ms Serino said Beetle Bank will not be able to operate as usual. Beetle Bank Open Farm is struggling to operate as usual due to the heat and dry weather. Photo: Beetle Bank Open Farm /PA Wire The farm usually produces around 50 to 70 big bales of hay a year but is likely to produce about 10 bales this year. "That's a couple of thousands of pounds down the drain before you get going never mind the feed that you have to buy in to replace that," she said. "It's stressing me out because our animals are part of the system. You can't just be without them, and we can't be without food for them. It's going to mean more animals will have to go than usual. "Winter's always a bad time for us because we have very little income coming in and now we'll have a massive food bill to find the money for as well because we'll have to feed our animals hard food and hope that there's plenty of that about." The farm grows its own hay to feed the animals through winter but isn't able to produce as many bales this year. Photo: Beetle Bank Open Farm /PA WireThe farm director said other local farmers had told her they will have "very little" hay for sale this year. "This spring when it was really hot and dry, I was thinking should I buy a water canon of some description, and you just think that this is Britain and it will change. "You don't want to spend £5,000 on some sort of water system that sprinkles the fields when you don't have to and at the end of the day I should have just gone and done it then I wouldn't be in the state I'm in today. It's all a bit of a disaster to be honest." RECOMMENDED READS: 'I'm surprised Yorkshire Water hasn't introduced a hosepipe ban sooner' York and North Yorkshire experiencing one of driest years on record Ms Serino is not currently getting any support from the Government. "There's so many hoops you've got to jump through to actually get something and you have to match the funding. Well, if you don't have any money it's very difficult to get match funding. It's difficult times, and farming is not good." Ms Serino said the farm had also used a lot more water than usual this year and has also struggled to put up fencing it needed because the ground is "like a rock". The hot weather has also impacted revenue from visitors with only half the usual number going at the weekend. She said: "This will be one of the worst Saturdays we've had in a long time." Yorkshire and North East England has seen an average of just 242.8mm of rain so far in 2025 - less than half the amount that had fallen by this stage last year (542.3mm). Cumulative rainfall so far this year is the lowest for this part of the country since 1959, when 238.1mm had fallen by July 9.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Climate
- Yahoo
All a bit of a disaster: Yorkshire farmer tells of heat and dry weather impact
A farmer in Yorkshire has said she will struggle to feed her animals after the dry weather and heat slashed her hay yields, adding: 'It's all a bit of a disaster.' Angela Serino is the director of Beetle Bank Open Farm & Wild Sanctuary in York – a small, open, working farm where the public can visit the animals. Beetle Bank – which has goats, pigs, alpacas and rabbits – grows its own hay on 10 acres of land to feed the animals all the way through the winter and until April when its farmers typically buy a few bales until the next hay cut. But with Yorkshire experiencing one of its driest years on record, Ms Serino said Beetle Bank will not be able to operate as usual. 'This year we're expecting to have less than a quarter of the hay that we usually have,' she told the PA news agency. 'Nobody else seems interested around here but it's stressing me out big time because our animals are part of the system. You can't just be without them, and we can't be without food for them.' She continued: 'It's going to mean more animals will have to go than usual. 'Winter's always a bad time for us because we have very little income coming in and now we'll have a massive, massive food bill to find the money for as well because we'll have to feed our animals hard food and hope that there's plenty of that about.' Beetle Bank usually produces around 50 to 70 big bales of hay a year. 'I'm not expecting to have more than about 10 this year looking at the fields,' Ms Serino said. 'That's a couple of thousands of pounds down the drain before you get going never mind the feed that you have to buy in to replace that.' The farm director has been in contact with other farmers in the area who have told her they will have 'very little' hay for sale this year. She told PA that Beetle Bank is looking into an irrigation system to mitigate the impact from dry and hot weather if the same conditions return next year. Ms Serino said: 'Strangely enough I've been thinking about it all spring – this spring when it was really hot and dry, and I was thinking should I go out, should I buy a water canon of some description and you just think that this is Britain and it will change. 'You don't want to spend £5,000 on some sort of water system that sprinkles the fields when you don't have to and at the end of the day I should have just gone and done it then I wouldn't be in the state I'm in today. 'It's all a bit of a disaster to be honest. 'I don't remember being stressed about the winter in the summer before, except for 2019 where it poured with rain from the middle of middle of May until, god, I think February.' Ms Serino is not currently getting any support from the Government, saying it 'doesn't care about farming'. 'In an ideal world, they could go around and give us all a grant for the machinery we need to make what we need,' she said. 'There was a grant going not long ago but it's so difficult to actually apply for these things. There's so many hoops you've got to jump through to actually get something and you have to match the funding. 'Well, if you don't have any money it's very difficult to match funding. 'It's difficult times, and farming is not good.' Besides the issues with hay yields, Ms Serino said the farm has used 'an awful lot more water than usual' this year and has struggled to put up fencing it needed because the ground is 'like a rock'. The hot weather has also impacted revenue from visitors. 'Today and yesterday, we've only half the customers we should have because they don't like this weather,' Ms Serino told PA. 'So when it gets this hot, it has an effect on your revenue as well as your costs. 'We are way down on revenue today. This will be one of the worst Saturdays we've had in a long time.' She said the climate has gone 'completely upside down inside out' in the last five or six years. 'I just sort of saw it coming, but not properly,' she said. 'I saw something coming but not the actual extent that it is until you're sat on the doorstep with it. 'It's difficult to predict but I didn't really predict that you'd have months and months of no rain. 'I mean, every week you look at the weather and it says rain. I look on my phone now and it says it's raining Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and it just doesn't rain.' Yorkshire and north-east England has seen an average of just 242.8mm of rain so far in 2025 – less than half the amount that had fallen by this stage last year (542.3mm). Cumulative rainfall so far this year is the lowest for this part of the country since 1959, when 238.1mm had fallen by July 9.
The Independent
7 days ago
- Climate
- The Independent
All a bit of a disaster: Yorkshire farmer tells of heat and dry weather impact
A farmer in Yorkshire has said she will struggle to feed her animals after the dry weather and heat slashed her hay yields, adding: 'It's all a bit of a disaster.' Angela Serino is the director of Beetle Bank Open Farm & Wild Sanctuary in York – a small, open, working farm where the public can visit the animals. Beetle Bank – which has goats, pigs, alpacas and rabbits – grows its own hay on 10 acres of land to feed the animals all the way through the winter and until April when its farmers typically buy a few bales until the next hay cut. But with Yorkshire experiencing one of its driest years on record, Ms Serino said Beetle Bank will not be able to operate as usual. 'This year we're expecting to have less than a quarter of the hay that we usually have,' she told the PA news agency. 'Nobody else seems interested around here but it's stressing me out big time because our animals are part of the system. You can't just be without them, and we can't be without food for them.' She continued: 'It's going to mean more animals will have to go than usual. 'Winter's always a bad time for us because we have very little income coming in and now we'll have a massive, massive food bill to find the money for as well because we'll have to feed our animals hard food and hope that there's plenty of that about.' Beetle Bank usually produces around 50 to 70 big bales of hay a year. 'I'm not expecting to have more than about 10 this year looking at the fields,' Ms Serino said. 'That's a couple of thousands of pounds down the drain before you get going never mind the feed that you have to buy in to replace that.' The farm director has been in contact with other farmers in the area who have told her they will have 'very little' hay for sale this year. She told PA that Beetle Bank is looking into an irrigation system to mitigate the impact from dry and hot weather if the same conditions return next year. Ms Serino said: 'Strangely enough I've been thinking about it all spring – this spring when it was really hot and dry, and I was thinking should I go out, should I buy a water canon of some description and you just think that this is Britain and it will change. 'You don't want to spend £5,000 on some sort of water system that sprinkles the fields when you don't have to and at the end of the day I should have just gone and done it then I wouldn't be in the state I'm in today. 'It's all a bit of a disaster to be honest. 'I don't remember being stressed about the winter in the summer before, except for 2019 where it poured with rain from the middle of middle of May until, god, I think February.' Ms Serino is not currently getting any support from the Government, saying it 'doesn't care about farming'. 'In an ideal world, they could go around and give us all a grant for the machinery we need to make what we need,' she said. 'There was a grant going not long ago but it's so difficult to actually apply for these things. There's so many hoops you've got to jump through to actually get something and you have to match the funding. 'Well, if you don't have any money it's very difficult to match funding. 'It's difficult times, and farming is not good.' Besides the issues with hay yields, Ms Serino said the farm has used 'an awful lot more water than usual' this year and has struggled to put up fencing it needed because the ground is 'like a rock'. The hot weather has also impacted revenue from visitors. 'Today and yesterday, we've only half the customers we should have because they don't like this weather,' Ms Serino told PA. 'So when it gets this hot, it has an effect on your revenue as well as your costs. 'We are way down on revenue today. This will be one of the worst Saturdays we've had in a long time.' She said the climate has gone 'completely upside down inside out' in the last five or six years. 'I just sort of saw it coming, but not properly,' she said. 'I saw something coming but not the actual extent that it is until you're sat on the doorstep with it. England so far this year" data-source="Met Office"> 'It's difficult to predict but I didn't really predict that you'd have months and months of no rain. 'I mean, every week you look at the weather and it says rain. I look on my phone now and it says it's raining Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and it just doesn't rain.' Yorkshire and north-east England has seen an average of just 242.8mm of rain so far in 2025 – less than half the amount that had fallen by this stage last year (542.3mm). Cumulative rainfall so far this year is the lowest for this part of the country since 1959, when 238.1mm had fallen by July 9.
ABC News
05-06-2025
- Business
- ABC News
NSW farmers struggling to feed livestock in wake of Mid North Coast floods
Hay is precious on the Mid North Coast, where paddocks have turned to mud. Two weeks after record flooding swamped Tony Buttsworth's farm at Moorland, he's handfeeding hundreds of dairy cows with fodder. They're consuming around nine bales a day — as there are no green pastures left to graze on. But the lifelong farmer is worried about what will happen when the hay runs out. "At the moment, everything is just mud and slop and will take a long time to recover … we won't have any feed here until November or December, as grass," he said. Mr Buttsworth is grateful to have received some supplies through the generosity of Australians. Nearly two weeks ago, he appeared in an emotional interview with ABC News. At the time, he was filled with fear — and too exhausted to hide it. "There's nowhere dry for the cows, there's just no feed," he said tearfully, on May 25. "I don't know how to get out of this one." That prompted a show of support from friends and strangers — including some who provided feed for his cattle and others who started a GoFundMe page for his family. When Mr Buttsworth learned of the efforts to fundraise for his farm, he asked for the money to be donated to Need for Feed, an Australian charity that helps farmers in times of flood and drought. Over the weekend, the organisation rolled into the Mid North Coast with 15 trucks of fodder — enough to help around 50 farmers. Need for Feed founder Graham Cockerell said he has since received 150 more requests for help from primary producers from the region. He believes his team of volunteers will need to make regular hay deliveries to the region for the next three to six months. "The biggest problem is going to be supply and the cost of that supply," Mr Cockerell said. Hay is becoming increasingly scarce, and the cost has sky-rocketed in recent months, due to droughts in South Australia, Victoria and parts of New South Wales. "Six weeks ago, when we were trying to buy a heap of hay for South Australia, we were paying $200 to $250 a tonne," Mr Cockerell said. With supplies running low on the east coast of Australia, the organisation is considering paying top dollar to import fodder from Western Australia. There have also been calls for more government support for flood-hit farmers. This week, the state and federal governments announced they would split the bill to provide $25,000 grants for primary producers and small businesses affected by the disaster. Premier Chris Minns said he hoped the grants could be scaled up to $75,000 in the weeks ahead. "I genuinely do accept that this is a start," he told NSW Parliament this week. NSW Nationals leader Dugald Saunders said farmers had received $75,000 grants after the 2021 floods and that level of support "should be the starting point". "A dairy farmer who has a million dollars' worth of damage — to offer them a $25,000 grant, quite frankly it's a slap in the face," he said. Mr Buttsworth agreed larger grants would be needed to help primary producers fix their damaged properties. "$25,000 won't do much for many farmers who have been completely wiped out — some will never get going again," he said. The NSW government has not yet requested the highest level of disaster support from the federal government, as it is conducting further assessments of the scale of the damage. NSW recovery minister Janelle Saffin said this was in line with new federal guidelines, which required disaster grant funding requests to be made in stages. "This is a start … that's what we can do, put it out there, and then we'll see what else we can do," she said. In a statement to the ABC, federal Emergency Management Minister Kristy McBainsaid the Commonwealth "will continue to work hand in hand with the NSW Government and of course we will consider any additional funding requests from them when it is asked for".
ABC News
23-05-2025
- General
- ABC News
Millers Forest farmer losses over $100 000 in floods
Skip to main content 16m ago 16 minutes ago Fri 23 May 2025 at 4:58am Hay and cattle producer, Michael Zyza, runs a farm at Millers Forest, north of Newcastle and says his bales have been destroyed.
