Livestock farmers are worried that prolonged dry conditions could threaten milk production and animal health amid a shortage of hay – the fundamental nutritional fodder on which animals rely for good health and wellbeing, Barbados TODAY can reveal.

While Ministry of Agriculture consultant Dr Leroy McClean acknowledged a shortage, he insisted that the issue had not reached a critical stage.

But President of the Beef and Dairy Producers Association McDonald Stevenson urged the government to provide a solution quickly, especially with weather forecasters and climatologists predicting a heatwave and drought during the Atlantic hurricane season and towards the end of this year.