A West Wales farmers' leader today called on fellow farmers to help maintain the "lifeline" of fodder deliveries to Somerset where the crisis caused by the recent floods is "far from over".
Farmers' Union of Wales Ceredigion county chairman Aled Rees, who has already overseen the delivery of 16 huge loads of hay and silage to the West Country over the past two months, said West Wales farmers were now telling him they didn't realise there was still a problem in Somerset.
"The grass is growing here in West Wales and it has been a fairly good spring so they think it's the same all over the country. But last week I saw a lot more demand from the forage bank in Somerset.
"They rang me several times during the week to ask for forage as they were running low because they had experienced a lot of wet weather last week and stock had to be re-housed because the land that had only just dried out became saturated very quickly."
Mr Rees said he had been in regular contact with Somerset Levels agricultural flood recovery co-ordinator Abigail Vickery who had told him the fodder they had already received from West Wales farmers "has been a lifeline for them and has helped keep the fodder bank full".
"But we still need to keep donations flowing as we are now scraping the bottom of the barrel to get loads. We have enough pledges to do two more weeks and then there will not be a lot left," added Mr Rees, who farms at Penparc, near Cardigan.
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FUW Ceredigion county chairman Aled Rees[/caption]