Severe weather takes toll on livestock

Livestock farmers in the Island are facing serious consequences as bad weather strikes at the height of the lambing season.

Numbers of pregnant ewes and lambs have perished in thick snow in exposed fields.

For those farmers who lamb outdoors, the early spring snowfall is little short of a disaster and for some, the prospects are increasingly grim.

Presenter of Manx Radio's Countryside programme farmer John Kennaugh says significant loss of livestock is likely around the Island as a result of the severe weather.

This morning (24 March) he came across several dead sheep on his farm at St John's and has described the exposed conditions his stock is up against: