Recovery from damages to crops and livestock facilities daunting

[Anchor]

As livestock facilities such as barns and greenhouses continue to collapse, the damage to crops has also been significant.

Efforts are being made to reduce the damage, but the accumulated snow is deepening the farmers' worries.

Reporter Song Myung-hee has the story.

[Report]

The center of a barn housing some 20 cows collapsed under the weight of the snow.

[Yoon Gi-ho/Farm Representative: "When it collapsed, the cows started running around, and it was chaotic. It's fortunate that it tilted like this; otherwise, I could have been buried too."]

Calves that could not be moved ahead of the collapse are anxiously wandering under the crumpled roof inside the barn.

Nearby farms in similar situations are more worried about the future.

[Yoon Joo-ho/Farm Representative: "If it were just one or two houses, it would be fine, but we have to demolish it, and it costs more than building new ones, including the demolition costs..."]

This farm also lost nine cows when the roof of the barn collapsed due to the heavy snowfall.

Most of the remaining 60 dairy cows may have to spend the winter in a barn without a roof.

Unable to wait any longer, the owner called in heavy equipment to start repairs himself.

[Heo Deok-il/Farm Representative: "I'm worried about the snow, I'm worried about the cold weather, and now I'm in a situation where they have to sleep on the ice through snow and rain."]

A ginseng field, covering over 7,500 square meters, is buried in snow.

The shading nets are nowhere to be found, and the support posts are broken and crumbled.

However, there is no time to be idle.

[Yoo Byeong-woon/Ginseng Farmer: "Even in winter, I think we need to demolish and remove the roof to minimize damage to the ginseng. If we see damage like this, crops that are two, three, four, or five years old will all be affected..."]

Preliminary estimates indicate that 42 hectares of farmland and 983 livestock facilities have been damaged, mainly in the southern Gyeonggi region, due to this heavy snowfall.

This is KBS News, Song Myung-hee.