The farming community has been overwhelmed by the massive show of support and concern from the Manx community – your thoughts and offers of help are genuinely appreciated and provide a lot of comfort at this challenging time.
The emergency help line has received huge volumes of calls offering help and it has been impossible to match all of these offers with the specialised needs of all of the farmers. Access to livestock is still an issue and public help has been greatly appreciated on lowland farms, but we do not advise that members of the public attempt to access the mountain areas in the search for sheep unless there is a supervised rescue. One hill farmer has reported: “it is just not safe and practical for members of the public to go into upland areas. The hills are full of dangers with many gullies and drops that are now hidden and could pose a real danger to those unused to working in such areas”.
As many of the helpers are now aware, there are a large number of casualties, particularly among sheep and lambs and unfortunately it will take some time to move all the bodies particularly taking into account the large deposits of snow and the access difficulties. The Department of Infrastructure is doing an excellent job trying to remove dead stock as fast as possible even in these testing conditions.
Ray Craine, President of the Manx NFU said “ More and more of the lowland farmers who have been less affected and have stabilised their own farm operations and are not tied up with lambing and calving, are able to help their fellow farmers using both specialised equipment and skills. We are extremely grateful to the public and the Government staff who have gone beyond the call of duty to assist farmers and livestock at this challenging time.”
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