The announcement follows a visit arranged by the NFU for David Heath, Minister of State for Agriculture, and Meurig Raymond, NFU Deputy President, to Cumbria last week. This allowed the Minister to see the situation for himself and to talk to farmers first-hand about the impact, following intensive lobbying over the last three weeks from the NFU.
NFU Deputy President Meurig Raymond said: “This very welcome move by Defra will come as a huge relief to those farming families who have struggled with the worst spring snow in living memory and have since faced the very specific problem of the cost of removal of large numbers of dead animals.
“The NFU will now continue to work very closely with the government on the detail of exactly how this money will be distributed.”