Farming Scorcher’s no shocker but some still getting hot under the collar
Now that our stiff upper lip approach to unusual events has been replaced by screaming, weeping and displays of flowers for anything more than a broken fingernail and most talk in superlatives, it was no surprise to see a recent newspaper headline: “World On Fire”.
The story was about more than Britain’s high temperatures and lack of rain, but still over the top. Australians, among others having a laugh at us, are saying: “Call that a heatwave? Once again Brits have been caught out by summer … complaining that it’s just too hot to bear.”
They have a point. Instead of enjoying a remarkable summer, the number of people moaning and longing for cold is growing. When it ends, probably along with flooding, they will moan about that.
What we might all have to accept is that we won’t have to wait another 42 years – as we did from the fabled summer of 1976 until now – for a summer like this. Some meteorologists predict 2018-type summers could be normal by the 2040s as global warming continues.
They point out that 1976 was exceptional and unexpected. Since then the average world annual temperature has crept up and has done so almost year by year for the past decade. So 2018 is not the shock that 1976, and in passing let’s not forget the glorious summer of 1975, was. That is in spite of 1976 having 18 consecutive days when a temperature of 30C or more was recorded somewhere in the UK, whereas in 2018
0 Harvests have been unusually early this year
we only managed nine consecutive days above 30C. It has felt longer and hotter than that, even for those of us who have mainly seen temperatures “only” in the mid20s, although I’ve always found it easier and preferable to work and do something active in high temperatures than sit around or sunbathe.
I suspect most farmers feel the same. As it is, they and farm staff have had little choice as harvest has rushed on them and an increasing number are trying to keep livestock supplied with water.
The winter barley harvest is completed in England and well through in Scotland, two to three weeks earlier than usual. Instead of hoping that oilseed rape crops could be cut at below 14 per cent moisture content, growers in the south struggled to harvest their crop at above six per cent moisture. Belowthat,there are financial penalties by merchants. Harsh and hardly fair, but that’s the contract.
In an average year England’s wheat crop is cut in August and most of Scotland’s wheat crop in September. In bad years, one or two not long ago, the wheat harvest has extended into November. This year record-breaking starts to the wheat harvest were made in the south of England in mid-july. Some growers there think they might finish harvest
before August starts. Any farmer would rather harvest in hot, dry conditions than wet, humid and miserable weather. There seem to be fewer breakdowns, grain and straw whizz through the combine, moisture contents for wheat and barley are well below the 15 per cent when drying is needed or penalties applied and bone-dry, bright straw is a pleasure to bale and cart.
Against that, grain yields tend to be lower than average after a long dry spell, with less straw. The knock-on effect is less straw available to bed, or feed, livestock over the winter. Less grain usually means higher prices, but the same applies to straw and increased costs to keep livestock.
Although harvest is well under way several weeks early, some farmers in Scotland are getting their retaliation in first. They warn that yields will be progressively lower, particularly of spring barley drilled late – because of the wet, horrible, cold spring that dragged almost into May, remember? – that has struggled to grow through the driest first half of a summer since at least 1961.
As for livestock farmers, this weather is a reminder that water is a precious resource, even in what are usually the wettest parts of the UK. That message could be driven home more often over the next few years.