Frozen pipes hit the farming community particularly hard
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Wednesday January 13 2010
THE BIGGEST problem encountered by Wexford farmers in the longest cold spell in 50 years is frozen pipes.
Farmers need a constant supply of water for animals and milking parlours but temperatures were so low that pipes were freezing solid.
'This weather is a nightmare really. Everything is taking a lot more time and effort', said the County IFA chairman Ger Lyons of Craanford last Friday.
'I'll give you an example. Even the outlet on the hot water tank was frozen this morning. I had to boil a kettle and pour hot water over it to get it going.'
IFA national executive representative Michael Doran of Johnstown, Duncormick agreed. 'The biggest problem is getting water into sheds and also the tractors that don't start.
When you consider that a milking cow can drink up to 100 litres of water a day while a fattening beef animal will consume up to 40 litres, any interruption in the water supply is serious.
Michael Doran has sheep which are still out grazing but he has to bring hay out to them in this weather.
'The working day is a lot longer when the weather is like this,' he said.
According to Ger Lyons, the dangerously icy roads in rural areas were causing access problems and some farmers were experiencing difficulty getting milk collected.
'The only thing you can try to do is get access to a small tanker on wheels and pump the milk into to bring it where it can be collected. Otherwise you have to cut your losses,' he said.
'If this weather continues there could be a scarcity of liquid milk. There won't be fresh milk available.'
There was also a danger of animals in remote areas suffering if farmers could not get to them.
However, the tractor is a great machine and can access most places, according to Ger.
He recalled that while there was a bigger volume of snow during the big chill of 1982, this cold spell was more prolonged.
