'Happy tears' for farmer after herd survives storm

A farmer has described having "one of the longest nights" looking after her cattle as a storm passed through Jersey.

Wind speeds of 95 mph (154km/h) were recorded in the island as Storm Goretti hit on Thursday night, causing more than 300 people to lose power and a recorded 86 trees felled blocking the roads.

Zoe Marshall, who runs Clairval Farm, in St Saviour, with her mum Gaynor, said some of the herd had to stay outside during the storm due to limited space.

"If you can't bring them home you've just got to try and minimise the stress to them as best you can," she said.

"It was a very, very long night - the guilt that you live with that they're outside and the anxiety, it just, it completely eats your life.

"It was probably one of the longest nights we've had in a long time."

Marshall said she and her mother did not know what they were going to wake and find on Friday morning.

She said: "Although we brought our main herd in, we had some pregnant heifers left in outlying fields that there was no possible way of getting them home and nowhere to put them at home.

"It was their first time experiencing weather like that and it was just it was awful, just full of dread, full of guilt."

Marshall said she and her mother "didn't really sleep" but said the farm was "really lucky" that all the cows were OK and accounted for in the morning.

She said: "There was tears, there was happy tears. I mean to see these guys in the barn, some of them were actually fast asleep which was lovely.

"When we went to check our outlying fields, we noticed that our girls weren't where they normally would be up by where their food is - panic sets in, dread.

"We looked out into the field, we did call them and after a minute, or what felt like forever, they did come out where they were hiding from and it was just pure relief."

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