Farmers need rain after long hot summer and dry winter

Farmer Stephen Briggs, who runs a cereal, vegetables and fruit farm and the Harvest Barn Shop in Farcet, said the warm weather had the potential to cause problems for other agricultural workers in the region.

He said: “There is an upside to the warm weather, in that people can go out and plant their crops earlier, and get started ahead of the spring. “However, for fruit and vegetable growers, there is now the added risk of pests and diseases on crops.

“For livestock farmers it is a major problem. “There was a low food stock for animals already as a result of the drought last summer.

“If we have a dry spring - and we have not had much rain over the past few months at all there could be severe implications for everyone.. “We really need rain by the end of March.” Stephen said farmers were now trying to plan for warmer conditions in the future.

He said: “Farmers are very resilient, and have to deal with a lot of change. “But with climate change and Brexit bringing so much change, we are having to be more prepared than ever.

“We work on cycles that can last years - it can be five years from planting a fruit tree before you get anything - so it is very challenging times at the moment. We don’t know what Brexit will bring, so we are all thinking of different ways to carry on - that’s why I opened the shop. Other people are looking at growing different crops to what we would normally grow here. There is a lot of uncertainty.”

Cental Park this time last year