Seán Lavery, Shanagolden, Co Limerick

“We had a foot of snow, so I had to dig myself out on Sunday and there were trees down, so I had to cut myself out as well.

“West Limerick and south Limerick are the most badly affected; parts of south Limerick have 2ft of snow. Some people won’t have electricity back until Thursday or Friday and as a result, no water in sheds.

“Some flat roof sheds have collapsed from the weight of snow, especially ones with timber trusses. The next big worry is the big freeze.”

Sean Lavery.

Pat O’Keeffe, Mitchelstown, north Cork

“The pig farm is a 24-hour continuous business because the pigs are consuming water at different times of the day and night.

“The feeding systems are also automatic, so it’s just making sure that it keeps going or that it won’t freeze up.

“There are people in trouble. Some people are getting their electricity back so that brings water back into the equation. Is the water now frozen? Because that’s the problem you have when electricity has been gone for three days.”

Pat O’Keeffe

Pat Carroll, Garranlea, South Tipperary

“I had two trucks stuck earlier today [Tuesday]. The snow is still on the roads and there are only wheel tracks. They’ll be worse tomorrow because of the frost; they’ll have thawed and frozen again. The fact that the snow wasn’t shifted, certainly isn’t helping them. Once stock are fed, they’ll keep themselves warm but farmers get very concerned when stock don’t have water. They’d spend the whole day thawing pipes and get nowhere. You could be waiting a few days before water is flowing properly again.”

Pat Carroll.

John Heffernan, Ballymacarby, Co Waterford

“We had to do a lot of work to get the milk truck in; we had to grit the road. They had to take a different route; the normal way was impassable.

“On some roads, you mightn’t have snow but it’s a lot worse if you’ve glassy ice.

“[Met Éireann] is giving temperatures as low as -8°C, that’ll present problems with pipes freezing and all kinds of issues for milking in the morning. We spent a lot of time locking up open spaces with bales of straw to try insulate the buildings and cut out the frost.”

John Heffernan.