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Rising water levels forces farmer to move cattle

Tom Jackson/BBC Half a dozen white cattle, with yellow ear tags, standing in a barn behind a metal frameTom Jackson/BBC
Linda Sewell usually leaves her cattle to graze on riverside meadows for another three to four weeks at this time of year

A farmer has rapidly evacuated the riverside pasture where her cattle graze "in a bit of a panic" after rising water levels due to heavy rain in the past couple of days.

Linda Sewell usually leaves her animals on meadows at St Ives, Cambridgeshire, for another three to four weeks at this time of year.

Moving them into barns this early was "something I didn't need on top of the bluetongue," the farmer from Meadow View Farm, Brampton, said.

Ms Sewell is currently unable to move her stock out of the county after a temporary restriction zone was introduced to try to control the spread of the virus.

Tom Jackson/BBC The River Great Ouse has burst its banks, with muddy-coloured water lapping onto a grass slope with treesTom Jackson/BBC
Water levels have been rising along the River Great Ouse, including further upstream at St Neots, where a red flood warning was in place

Ms Sewell moved her livestock after an amber flood alert was issued for the Great Ouse as far downstream as Earith, east of St Ives.

"We got them loaded just before dark last night [Monday], which I was relieved about because the water was rising," said the farmer.

Bringing the cattle on to the farm is another expense for the business, which is unable to sell its stock until the bluetongue restriction zone is lifted.

Ms Sewell said: "We can't sell anything because we don't have a livestock market in Cambridgeshire any more.

"We can't go over the border to the auctions at Thrapston, Northamptonshire, or Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire."

Bluetongue – or BTV-3 – can cause infertility and breathing problems in some animals but does not affect humans or food safety, said the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

The virus is spread by midges that are often blown over from mainland Europe during spells of warm weather.

Ms Sewell is waiting to hear if she can get the animals tested on the farm, although that "is another expense because a vet's got to come out and do it and it gets sent off to a laboratory".

"This is going to cause a lot of farmers a lot of financial problems," she said.

"[The cattle] still need to be fed and the stockmen still have to be paid, so you've got your expenses going out, but you've got nothing coming in."

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