NI farmers lauded for food production in extreme heat
Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) deputy leader and Fermanagh and south Tyrone MLA Diana Armstrong has praised the hard work of Northern Ireland’s farmers for ensuring food production continued despite extremely challenging weather.
She said farmers have spent one of the toughest weeks of the year racing to get the silage in during one of the hottest spells the country has seen to keep the food production cycle going.
Armstrong said: “This past week was probably the hardest of the whole farming year, and right across the country you simply couldn’t miss it.
"It didn’t matter where you were, you could hear the harvesters, the tractors and the balers, the roar of engines going all day long and well into the long nights.
“It was a week full of anxiety, with everyone working against the clock to get the grass in before the weather turns.
"Long hours, crushing heat, and very little rest. But our farmers wouldn’t have it any other way, because they love what they do. It is the work they were raised to do, and it is in their blood," she added.
The MLA said that there will be no trade union out on protest for farmers adding that there are no complaints over the minimum wage or no demands for better working conditions.
"They simply get on with the job, quietly and without fanfare," she continued.
“But they do need our support. This will be a year of squeezed incomes and added pressure for farm families, in an industry already weighed down with red tape and bureaucracy at every turn.
“We would all do well to remember that it is weeks like this that put food on our tables and stack the shelves we so often take for granted.
"The abundance we enjoy does not happen by accident. It is earned, in the heat and the long days, by the men and women who work our land."
The UUP representative said she is committed to lobbying for more support for farmers at Stormont.
