UK Heatwave: Welsh farmers battle to survive drought

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Europe

02:37

The UK government has promised to support farmers impacted by this summer's dry weather. The announcement comes after an emergency drought summit was held by the National Farmers' Union in London. Farmers fear that prolonged drought conditions could pose a threat to Britain's food supplies. Zhang He visited a dairy farm in Wales and has this story.

These two pictures show a dairy farm near Cardiff, Wales. The first one was taken in April and the second in July. The green grass is turning yellow under the excruciatingly dry conditions. This summer is difficult for Abi who milks 180 cows at this farm.

ABI READER DAIRY FARMER "I haven't seen the farm this dry ever. I think the last time we had a very dry period of time on the farm was 1976 which is before I was born. My father said it was extremely dry but now I think it is worse."

The pasture should be lush and green for the cows to enjoy grazing in the grass. However, the problem with grass is that it becomes very short as result of the dry weather. And it is not growing fast enough to meet demand.

ABI READER DAIRY FARMER "It is just not ideal for milking cow at all. It needs a while to recover. We are looking at incredibly short grass, so normally it would be at least the height of my hand. We are obviously looking very very short grass here. The root system underneath is starting to die."

Abi has to find other ways to keep her animals feed and it costs her an extra $275 dollars a day. She just made a difficult decision to send some poor performing cows to slaughter in order to reduce her feed costs.

ZHANG HE CARDIFF "Farmers usually cut grass several times in summer to make this and preserve them for winter use. But this year, the shortage of grass means that they have to feed their animals on winter supplies."

ROBERT READER FARMER "This stack behind you here. I don't know how many bales are left there because I am scared to count them now. And we normally go into the winter with about 1200 wrap bales of silage. How many wrap bales we have got left? I dread to think, but I should think it is less than 200."

Weather forecasts are predicting that dry conditions may continue in the UK. It could be serious concerns for many farmers because when winter comes, there won't be enough to keep the animal feed. Zhang He, CGTN, Cardiff.