Devon farmer's fears over persistent rain

A farmer has said weeks of persistent rain has been making things difficult for him.

Jon Ranjit, who farms 1,200 sheep near Ipplepen in south Devon, said more than 300 of his flock would normally be relying on grass for feed.

But the churned up fields means there is less grass than normal at this time of year.

Mr Ranjit has been buying in extra hay at £30 a bale, but fears if the rain continues he could "be in trouble".

"With this weather we're feeding a tremendous amount of bales per week," the 31-year-old said.

"If this weather carries on I think we're going to be in trouble."

Mr Ranjit said the weather was causing endless amounts of problems.

"We started off with a dry summer leading into a wet autumn and the first part of the winter. It's causing endless amounts of problems with the sheep.

"We've got a lot of sheep outdoors on forage crops at this time of the year. As you can imagine they're turning to mud pretty quick and creating more stress all round for the sheep and ourselves."

Mr Ranjit had to bring one lamb in after it became ill.

"She had pneumonia two to three weeks ago, she was going downhill outdoors in this weather so we brought her in an treated her and I'm glad to say she will make a full recovery," he said.

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