DEFRA will consider appeals for aid for flooded farmers, says Lord Rooker

Junior DEFRA minister Jeff Rooker has promised to consider financial assistance to farmers hit by this summer’s unprecedented flooding.

Touring farms in the Tewkesbury and Upton-upon-Severn areas on Friday (27 July) he said it was far to soon to estimate the total cost.

“We will see what August brings and assess the situation at the end of September, but I would encourage the NFU to put a case [for aid].  It won’t just be dismissed,” he said.

Lord Rooker heard from several farmers what the last week had been like.

Gordon Halling who keeps 65 suckler cows at Twyning beside the river Avon said he had lost his entire hay crop.

He told the minister he faced a choice this winter of buying in fodder at inflated prices or selling his cows and retiring.

Another farmer Trevor Jaynes of Red House Farm, Longdon had his milk collected on Friday for the first time in a week.  During that time he has had to pour away over 5000 litres.  “I don’t know yet if I will be paid for it,” he said.

By Philip Clarke in Gloucestershire