A LOCAL farmer has highlighted the plight of dealing with extreme weather conditions which has forced him to buy in maize to feed his livestock and reduce his herd numbers because of the shortage of fodder.

Farmer Peter Brewer told BBC’s Farming Today that last summer was exceptionally dry and is unsure if he has enough feed to last until spring as the hot weather reduced his yield.

His store of silage is significantly down and has had to buy in additional maize to feed his cattle.

Mr Brewer, who has a dairy herd of 70 cows and farms near Ross, said: “Normally we would make 350 to 400 tons from the first cut of grass sileage, and subsequent cuts would be used as round bails or hay bales, which would number around 750.

“Last year we only produced a maximum of 350 bales which means we do not have a surplus to use as feed later in the year.

“This is because of the weather. We didn’t have any spring growth in the grass and it didn’t improve during the summer and this impacted on other crops.

“If spring is late this year, we could be in the position of not having enough feed for the cows.

“We are not in the financial position to buy any more in and the likely scenario is that we will have to turn them out onto less-than-ideal grass.”

Mr Brewer explained that he has already sold a lot of store cattle, some six months earlier than they would normally have done in the autumn, knowing that the farm would be short on feed during the winter.

He added: “If we have another summer this year as we did last year, I predict that feed costs will be astronomical so the option of buying in will not be there. Every livestock farmer is in a similar position.”