Gordon Halling battled on after foot-and-mouth disease wiped out his flock of sheep and bovine tuberculosis spread to his cattle but floods this week could prove the final straw for the west England farmer.
"I honestly don't know what I am going to do," Halling said, as floods left him without crops that he would normally turn into hay for his suckler cows.
Halling, who farms in Twyning near the River Severn in Gloucestershire, had already made both his sons redundant as he struggled to stay in business.
He is normally able to grow the crops he needs to feed his cows but this year he has only six bales of hay left and 140 acres of grass destined for hay under water.
Halling said he may be forced to sell his herd.
UK farming minister Jeff Rooker visited Halling's farm on Friday during a tour to inspect the damage inflicted by Britain's worst flooding in 60 years.
About 350,000 people faced two weeks without running water and the insurance bill could soar to 3 billion pounds ($6.10 billion).
"It has been an eye-opener. We're not going to know the full effect until the end of September. There is a real problem here," Rooker said, noting some of the crops may be recoverable but others would be lost.
EXPENSIVE HAY
Neighbour Derek Roberts, who has his flock of sheep huddled in one small corner of his farm with much of the land still under water, also said he may have to sell his animals as the cost of feeding them soars.
"Hay is my biggest problem at the moment. How I am going to survive I just don't know. I just can't afford to buy it," Roberts said.
