Unusually heavy snow this spring has caused grave concerns for farmers, falling as it has during lambing season. Uplands farmers in the North of England, Wales and Scotland in particular have expressed fears that thousands of pregnant sheep and newborn lambs may have perished in heavy snowfall over the weekend.

There are fears that animals may have been trapped, invisible in drifts of snow before help could reach them, as some areas have received the heaviest snowfall for decades.

The problem has been severe on the Isle of Man, where snowfall has been at its heaviest since 1963. In Western England, Cumbria and Shropshire too have been hard hit.  Across the UK heavy snow has served to compound misery after rainfall in 2012 impacted heavily on farming activities, affecting the availability and price of feed.

Although meteorologists forecast the severe conditions several days in advance and issued extreme weather warnings before snowfall hit, farmers claim that, in many cases, they were virtually powerless to act in the face of such heavy snow.

NFU has said it remains too early to gauge the extent of the situation and the toll on herds. NFUS described this weekend as bringing the "worst March weather on record."

NFUS spokesperson Andrew McCornick, who farms at Barnbackle, Dumfries said, "We are well through our annual lambing so the snow couldn’t have hit at a worse time. The drifting snow is so bad that there are still many vulnerable sheep that we are still battling to get to and we know that we are likely to face losses when the snow has cleared. We have sufficient hay, silage and concentrates to last until the middle of the week by which time clearing the farm road will be a priority as we will need animal feeding by this time."

On Tuesday (26 March), snow was still falling across parts of Northern England and Wales. A Met Office spokesperson told Farming Online, "Conditions will persist throughout many areas over the next couple of days and into the Easter weekend. Although there will be snow flurries certainly up until Thursday, most areas should receive no more than 1cm of fresh snow cover. Temperatures will remain a good deal below average, with highs of around 4-5oC in many parts."

However, the spokesperson added that, due to conditions remaining cold, "snow and ice will take an awful long time to thaw; the slow thaw means flooding is unlikely."  Though this will come as a relief to many in the lowlands, the promise of cold conditions lingering until this weekend bodes ill for livestock keepers.  

On Monday, officials from Defra and the Department of Transport announced that the government has relaxed driving hour regulations for hauliers delivering animal feed to livestock farms in the harsh conditions.