Dairy farmer fears for future as heavy rain causes 'unprecedented' flooding
ITV News visits Brinkworth Dairy to see the impact heavy rain and extreme weather is having on farmers
A Wiltshire dairy farmer says extreme weather is threatening her livelihood - as a third of her land has been left submerged by heavy rain.
Brinkworth Dairy has been in Ceri Cryer's family for more than 100 years.
But she fears for its future after Wiltshire experienced a record amount of rain - will more than three times the average amount falling in September.
Ceri’s herd of cows have had to be moved inside for winter two months early as the fields they would normally graze in are now a bog.
“A third of our farm is flooded, a third of it is underwater," Ceri said. "It’s decimating.
|You've got to farm as if you're in it for the really long term. So you're not thinking about my losing money this week or making money this week. It’s going to be a really tough year.”
The cows are now eating their winter stock of silage, which costs around three times as much as grass, and the team are concerned they may run out of supplies in the months ahead.
Normally the cows graze outside for 260 days of the year, but the wet weather means they are already inside.
Ceri says climate change has seen a rise in more extreme weather, with the farm now flooding multiple times in a year as well as regular heatwaves in the summer.
But she said this flooding is the worst it’s ever been.
Ceri admits it has made her concerned about the future of the business, which is at the mercy of the unpredictable seasons.
Ceri said: “Nowadays, it's just unprecedented. My father and I have never seen anything like it for the frequency of flooding that we have and for the speed at which the water comes up.
“It's absolutely incredible. Definitely the climate has changed and we flood, but we're not on the Environment Agency's flooding map, which means we're not eligible for any financial support despite all of the different financial costs that we have because of this.”