THE big freeze has left East Lancashire farmers working around the clock to keep their animals fed and watered.

Farmer Danny Myers, 47, who works his Burnley farm with the help of wife Donna, 44, and children Lauren, 24, Danny, 18, Morgan, 11, and grandson Ethan, eight, said he had seen his workload more than treble and the cost of running the place spiral.

The family at Brownside Farm, off Brownside Road, Worsthorne, are well-known locally for selling cheap free range eggs, but business has dried up with people unwilling to make the trip out to the farm, while the cost of feeding the animals has spiked.

Mr Myers keeps chickens, pigs and horses on the property and is planning to add Aberdeen Angus cows to the venture next year.

The snowfall has caused a range of unforeseen problems to him, the biggest of which is the constant battle to get water to the animals.

Because the outdoor taps are frozen he has had to fetch water from the river and haul the heavy buckets back up the steep frozen bank.

To reach the horses, kept in a fenced-off arena across the river, Mr Myers negotiates a metal ladder bridge, made more difficult to cross by a fresh coating of ice.

When the animals’ water bowls are filled, it is a short time before they freeze over again, making a non-stop cycle for the farmer.

He said: “In a way the problems I’m having here on the farm are just like everyone else’s.

“Life has to go on and does but things go a lot slower.

“The water freezes as soon as it’s put out so you’re constantly going backwards and forwards.

“A job that would usually only need doing once, is getting done five times and a job that would usually take an hour takes more like two or three.”

Mr Myers also said there were feeding problems.

He said: “Usually the animals would graze for themselves but now they need proper feed which costs a lot more.

"I’ve had to keep the horses in the arena where I can reach them more easily and put haylage in a wheel barrow for them.

“In weather like this the animals eat twice as much and they drink twice as much as well.

"If the chickens don’t get enough water then there’re no eggs, so you have to keep at it.

“The weather has also kept people from coming round for eggs.

"It’s only £1 for six, so usually we get a steady stream, but it’s totally dried up.

“You couldn’t prepare for it, even if you knew and you couldn’t do anything more.

"At the end of the day it’s the same for lots of people.

"You still have to make a shilling, so you get on with it.”