Around 3,000 sheep are thought to have died in Skagafjörður, Þingeyjar and Eyjafjörður counties, North Iceland, as a result of the mid-September blizzard.

Photo courtesy of ICE-SAR search and rescue teams.

According to Vignir Sigurðsson, managing director of Búgarður, a farming consultancy service in the area, the number is only an estimate as reliable data on the impact of the blizzard is hard to come by, mbl.is reports.

Work is being done to try to calculate the cost of the storm damage in Northeast Iceland. Last week, it was estimated that around 5,500 sheep had died in the blizzard, but after successful sheep herding last weekend, estimates are now closer to 3,000.

Vignir says that the impact varies between farms but that overall around 15 percent of the sheep population is thought to have been lost.

Eiríkur Loftsson at the Agricultural Society of Skagafjörður, says that the numbers are too unreliable but that they should have a better picture of the loss next week.

RÚV reports that farmers estimate that direct product loss could range between ISK 100 and 200 million (USD 812,000-1,625,000, EUR 627,000-1,254,000).

Up to 10,000 ewes and lambs are still missing and it is believed that the largest part of these have perished. Some farmers are missing around 200 sheep from their herds.

Surviving lambs cannot be slaughtered this autumn as scheduled but must be fed throughout the winter and perhaps even next summer as well. Consequently, it is assumed that the market will be short of 160 tons of lamb this slaughtering season.

ZR/ESA