Calls for financial relief to aid Longford farmers hit by harsh summer
Longford’s insipid summer has sparked calls for a compensation scheme to be rolled out to ease the financial burden on farmers that has seen large swathes of land beset by flooding.
Cllr Paraic Brady raised the issue at a recent meeting of Longford County Council arguing the point for financial aid to be set aside for those that have been affected by deteriorating fodder collection levels.
“This week hasn’t actually been too bad but unfortunately the fodder has been reared and this is the second or third growth that has gone up through it and the quality certainly isn’t there,” he said.
“We are looking at a welfare issue going into the winter here where there will be a lot of cattle fed this and it simply won’t be sufficient.”
Cllr Brady said it was incumbent on Agriculture Minister Charlie McConologue to act now and withstand the fiscal pressures farmers were having to bear the brunt of.
“Now is the time for the minister to make some sort of package available because if he doesn’t make it now and we go into the winter period we will see a welfare issue in the quality of feed that has been made for this winter,” he said.
“Unfortunately it is one of those summers where there is a lot of land that has been flooded.”