The member of parliament for North Cornwall has joined an increasing chorus of calls to provide support for the area’s embattled farmers.

MP Ben Maguire has said that farmers in his area and surrounding areas have been severely hit by a double whammy of high temperatures and a severe outbreak of the Bluetongue virus, which is spread to animal from the bites of midges.

His intervention comes after farmers, including Adrian Parsons, the councillor for Altarnun and Stoke Climsland, spoke out and revealed the plight facing Cornwall’s farming sector.

In a letter to MP Stephen Morgan, the parliamentary under-secretary of state at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), Mr Maguire has called on the government to support farmers.

He said: “I write to express my extreme concerns for the livestock and dairy sector in North Cornwall. This summer weather, and its successive heatwaves are causing stresses and strains in the industry that will have implications for the health and welfare of both farmers and their animals long after this current drought has broken.

“The prolonged and sustained high pressures are severely impacting the levels of forage that farmers can conserve for the winter months and many are being forced to begin feeding limited supplies already as the grass continues to burn off through the lack of any meaningful rainfall.

“To compound this situation, there has been a widespread and severe outbreak of the midge borne bluetongue disease that has far exceeded the prevalence of the disease in previous years and is being experienced by many farmers for the first time.

“This is an insidious and indiscriminate illness with multiple strains and which presents with varied, little or no symptoms. This has made the decision whether to vaccinate a difficult one for livestock keepers, especially as availability has not always been consistent in previous years.

“The manifestation of this outbreak has been very sudden in North Cornwall and some farmers are losing livestock daily with the associated cost of disposal to add to the loss of value of the animal. This is both financially and mentally extremely tough on family families who are already working under tight margins.”

Mr Maguire is calling on the government to mirror a fund that assists the farming sector in the event of flooding in order to help provide relief at a time where the opposite is occurring, specifically a flood.

He continued in his letter to the government minister: “His calls come during a time of a drought in Cornwall, leading to South West Water introducing a hosepipe ban.

“Please can you consider using some of the overall farming budget specifically to support this sector in their hour of need, and in particular consider subsidising the costs of fallen stock in areas where bluetongue has been identified as being particularly severe.

“We already have a farming recovery fund in place for flooding events and I would suggest a similar approach to droughts would be appropriate, especially where the welfare of livestock could potentially be compromised as a result.“