This year’s winter has been one of the longest and most severe on record and as the snow flurries and bitter cold weather continues in many areas – preventing any thaw of deep lying snow – concerns are mounting relating to future fodder supplies and this year’s lamb crop.

Last week’s snow fall was extremely localised with some hill areas struggling to work through up to 4ft of snow, while others remained completely free of the white stuff. But with temperatures in these areas regularly plummeting to minus 10 degress and below, there will be little sign of any grass for a long time to come yet.

“The weather was bad last year but this year has surpassed it,” said John Macpherson, president of the Blackface Sheep Breeders’ Association. “This is one of the worst winters I’ve ever known and it looks as if mother nature is not finished yet.

“We used to get mild, wet winters in Argyllshire, but we’ve had snow since December 6 and the last week’s snow would have buried some, so I would expect lamb crops to be down a bit in the west.”

Backing up these statements, Billy Renwick, vice-president of the association, said: “December and January were two really bad months but we always thought things would be fine by lambing time as long as the weather took up February/March.

“However, the sheep in the Borders have taken a real hammering – the lamb crop in this area is bound to be down purely because sheep have not been able to get down to any grass there may be, due to the snow. If things don’t improve significantly soon, lambing will be difficult.”