Weather blamed for UK’S worst harvest in 25 years

While some pockets of grain still remain to be combined in Scotland, scientific data has confirmed fears that, across the UK as a whole, farmers have had the worst harvest for at least 25 years, following four seasons of extreme weather.

Analyses by the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology ( UKCEH) of satellite data from over two million fields revealed the extent of reductions in the amount of arable land sown with the major crops and also the yield at harvest.

The fall comes after a triple whammy for farmers – torrential rain at crucial times hampered sowing of most types of crops, an exceptionally dry spring affected plant growth and heavy downpours in August created challenging harvesting conditions.

Using data from satellites, the UKCEH found that there had been a dramatic reduction in the area planted with the traditional autumn sown crops of wheat and oilseed rape, largely due to the exceptionally wet autumn and winter resulting in saturated ground conditions.

Across Great Britain, the analysis showed there was a reduction of around 40 per cent in area of these crops, compared to the average for the previous five years, with some of the worst- hit areas of England seeing a drop of 70 per cent.

Saturated ground caused by torrential rain in February/ early March also hampered the planting of the spring- sown crops such as barley.

Adding in real-time measurements from combine harvesters on over 500 fields showed that the actual yield at harvest for t he wheat, oilseed rape and barley that was sown was down by an average of around 15 per cent, while some had fallen by t wothirds.

The extreme weather over several months has reduced both the quantity and quality of UK crops this harvest, hitting farmers’ incomes – and UKCEH scientists and farming organisations have warned it could be increasingly difficult for producers to deal with the impacts of more frequent extreme weather events linked to climate change, with the past decade seeing more extreme wet and dry spells.

“It really has been a ‘ perfect storm’ where British farmers have faced many challenges in the past few months due to the extreme weather, and the actual figures from this year’s harvest confirm t he wide - ly predicted large falls in yields of most crop,” said Dr William Fincham, who collated the crop yield data for UKCEH.

“High investment by farmers in fertilisers, pesticides and machinery has generally ensured good yield sin the past, but increasingly extreme weather makes it harder for them to make up the difference. Farmers may need to widen the range of crops grown and change some agricultural practices in future to help spread the risk.”

The centre’s Professor Richard Pywell said that modern sensor technology on satellite sand combine harvesters helped provide an early warning of potential problems with the country’s food supply, adding :

“It also enables farmers to identify the areas of fields and farms where yields are less resilient to extreme weather and action should be taken.”