Flooded farmers need your help

As you may have noticed, England has fairly horrible weather, as recently demonstrated by the flooding that is currently affecting parts of the UK.  Although it is a prominent feature of the news, one area that has mostly been overlooked is the damage and disaster caused to the farming community.

During the last few years, whenever there has been flooding, it is often the framers who take the worst of the damage.  The flooding destroys massive areas of farmland and crops, whilst  the rain and water make it extremely difficult for livestock farmers to prepare hay and silage for winter, as they are forced to either rent grazing land at high cost or sell their animals to slaughter.  All of this results in heavy costs and months of clean up for farmers in affected areas.

Fellow farmers are doing their best to help, with those from Yorkshire donating 15 tons of hay, silage and straw to Somerset to be delivered by two tractors to show their support in hard times, although even this may not be enough to help, as many businesses may have to close due to an estimated £10 million in total damages across the area.

It up to us to help out too, the following are ways you can help:

To donate to help farmers hit by the floods go to fcn.org.uk or call the hotline on 0845 367 9990.

The Addington Fund has also opened a special Somerset flooding appeal at http://www.addingtonfund.org.uk/news/more/somerset-flooding/

You can also donate to Rabi Charity via twitter at https://twitter.com/rabicharity or their website at http://www.rabi.org.uk/

Finally the Royal Bath and West Society set up The Somerset Levels Relief Fund in September 2013 with the express aim of raising funds towards dredging in the local area.  Visit them at http://www.bathandwest.com/somerset-levels/258/ alternatively at https://www.justgiving.com/Somerset-Levels-Relief-Fund or even phone them at 01749 822200 to find out more and donate.