Drought forces Swiss farms to buy costly winter feed

Prolonged drought is forcing Swiss farms to use their winter feed reserves and buy additional supplies, raising fears about their ability to survive the coming winter, SRF reports.

At a shared farm run by Josias Meili and two neighbours, the ground where around 100 cows normally graze is dusty, with only a few dry stalks remaining. Meili, a dairy farmer from Eschlikon, expects to be short of around 30 percent of the feed needed for winter.

His farm usually produces five or six cuts of grass a year. This year, the third cut was partly lost, and there have been no further cuts so far. Meili has already spent more than 50,000 Swiss francs above his normal costs on feed.

Because of the continuing dry conditions, many farms are now feeding their winter reserves, buying additional supplies or reducing their livestock numbers.

Roughage, including fresh pasture grass, hay and grain straw, is used to feed cows, cattle, horses and sheep. Farms are also currently feeding sugar beet and maize. Roughage can now also be traded through an exchange, where suppliers offer feed and farms can search for supplies.

Feed dealer Fabian Gut in Muolen says farmers looking for supplies are calling almost constantly. He recently received a call from a farmer in western Switzerland seeking hay but had to turn down the request because he could not organise the transport.

Gut says some farmers are coping calmly, but he is worried about others. Some farms, he estimates, face additional costs of tens of thousands of francs to secure feed. He buys supplies in Germany and Italy as well as Switzerland, saying that the search radius is growing steadily.

Feed prices are already up by as much as 50 percent compared with three months ago, according to Meili. The Swiss government recently reduced tariffs on hay and maize for feed, but the measure has not prevented prices from rising.

The situation is particularly challenging for farms producing milk without silage. René Eigenmann supplies such milk for Appenzeller cheese and says conditions have never been this dry. He is currently using his winter reserves and sees a degree of panic in the market, as farmers try to get through the winter without slaughtering animals prematurely.

Eigenmann is considering how to improve feed production next year. He says farmers need to rethink their methods so that the same crisis does not happen again and feels that the sector is always one step too late.