Temperatures in Romania hit over 40C in August, with the country experiencing several heat waves this summer.
Farmers in Romania are struggling to keep their cattle, following an ongoing drought making it hard for them to provide animals with feed.
In the southern county of Olt, farmer Traian Gîrtan has sold some of his 30-strong livestock.
Gîrtan told Euronews that feeding his cattle costs €1000 a month, up from previous years.
“The feed is almost double what it was last year. And how is the price of livestock now? The price of livestock is 30 to 40 percent lower than a year ago” said Gîrtan.
In order to keep his farm alive over winter, Gîrtan predicts he will sell half of his cattle.
Representatives of livestock breeders say this situation is being experienced across Romania.
“Those who now consume winter fodder will have to liquidate herds in October, November. The affects will indeed be long-term, because we are already witnessing a drastic, dramatic and worrying drop in numbers,” Dumitru Grigorean, chairman of the Romanian Meat Cattle Breeders Association, said.
Grigorean estimates that currently there are just over a million cattle in Romania, down from around 7 million. Once a farm has closed down, it is difficult for it to get back into business.
Farmers are concerned that the impact will eventually be felt by consumers, as farms will be forced to raise their prices to compensate for lack of livestock.
Southern and Eastern Europe have been faced with “persistent and recurrent drought conditions” according to a situation report compiled by the European Union.
In Romania, the government has compensated farmers for over two million hectares of farmland they estimate have been damaged as a result of recurring droughts according to domestic media.
Last week, code orange and yellow alerts were put into place in the country’s south and west, mimicking earlier alerts put in place in July by the country’s National Meteorological Association.
