Autumn rainfall is hitting us hard, say farmers
Struggle to harvest and sow crops amid deluges
THE UNPRECEDENTED levels of rainfall experienced this autumn have had a devastating effect on the countryside, with the NFU reporting farmers struggling to harvest and sow crops or facing a longer, expensive winter period with animals indoors.
NFU Regional Environment Adviser James Copeland said the Met Office had recorded a 79 per cent increase in rainfall this September, compared to last year, across the North East of England and a 74 per cent increase in October.
“This has caused significant problems for farmers needing to harvest food crops, such as potatoes, carrots and other root vegetables,” he said.
“It’s also made it very difficult to get onto the fields to plant next year’s cereal crops, with soils so waterlogged. Some farmers are reporting that they have yet to sow any seed for next year.”
Richard Bramley, who farms cereals, sugar beet and potatoes on 500 acres around Kelford and Riccall, near York, said they still had more than half the potato crop in the ground.
“We would normally have finished bringing them in around four weeks ago,” he said.
“We have had so much rain we were beginning to get areas of rotting in early October and I can only see that will have increased in the meantime.”
Mr Bramley said getting onto the land to harvest the crop was a big challenge.
“We are a distance off being able to physically get onto the land, we will keep a close eye on the weather and we may be lucky on the northern fringes but since September 22 we haven’t had more than two dry days together.”
Mr Bramley’s farm has a sandy loam soil which, under normal circumstances would drain well, but at the moment the land is saturated.
“We had 12 inches of rain in five weeks or so and each week the water level is getting topped up.”
The danger then is damaging the soil if machinery is taken onto it.
“Last week we tried to get the first length of field harvested but
COUNTRYSIDE CRISIS:
had to abandon it or risk damage,” he said.
Mr Copeland said it was a difficult balancing act.
“With the environment so prominent for all food-production systems in the UK, farmers have to balance the need to lift winter crops against the risk of damaging wet soils with farming machinery,” he said.
“Of course with the recent flooding, some of our members now have their fields and crops completely submerged beneath the flood waters. Many of these low-lying fields will not drain without the use of pumps. The longer the fields are submerged, the less likely it is that the crop will survive.”
The weather conditions are not just affecting arable farmers.
The dairy herd at Our Cow Molly, run by the Andrew family on the hills outside Sheffield, has come in a month earlier than last year due to the saturated ground. Eddie Andrew said the weather had produced a fantastic silage harvest earlier in the year, but the extra month in would still mean it was “touch and go” as to whether they had enough to last until next spring.
His father, Graham, said the previous year the silage crop had been poor but the cows had been out for longer which had evened it out.
Eddie Andrew said it was incredibly challenging and frustrating as the grass was still growing but they could not keep the cows out as it would ruin the ground.
Both Mr Bramley and Eddie Andrew said they had no doubts about the effects of climate change on the weather conditions over recent years.
“My dad has farmed here all his life and has definitely noticed a change,” said Eddie Andrew.
“I have not had any doubts about the effects of climate change,” said Mr Bramley. “We have seen the difference through three generations on our farm.”
Some of our members now have fields and crops completely submerged.
NFU Regional Environment Adviser James Copeland talking about the recent rainfall.