08 April 2013

S4C has announced that it will broadcast a special news programme tonight (8 April) looking at the effects of the severe weather on Welsh hill farms.

The cold weather has had a harmful effect on numerous farms in the mountainous areas of Wales, with hundreds of sheep and many wild ponies being buried alive in the snowdrifts.

On Newyddion: Argyfwng Ffermydd Mynydd (News: Hill Farm Crisis) tongight at 21.30, Rhun ap Iorwerth will be looking at the effects of the weather, reflecting the experiences of families on two farms hit by the snow, and following farmers at their work battling against the elements in the Welsh uplands.

The programme will also be considering the call by some farmers to be compensated, and asking whether farmers should get treated as a special case in circumstances of this kind? Rhun will be asking the Welsh Government about the help given to farmers.

Dafydd Rhys, S4C Director of Content, said:

“On S4C, we’re ready to change our schedules to respond to events of significance to the people of Wales. The recent severe weather has had an extreme effect on many of our communities. We want to make sure that S4C gives a voice to those people hit by the serious circumstances of the bitterly cold weather."

Geraint Lewis Jones, Director of the programme, said:

“The programme responds quickly to a story that’s still developing. By creating a special news programme concentrating on one issue, the aim is to look in depth at a situation described as a crisis for hill farms.”

Newyddion: Argyfwng Ffermydd Mynydd, tonight at 21.30 on S4C.