After the driest first seven months for nearly a century, farmers nationwide are struggling with dry land
Farmers across the UK are reporting ruined crops as the “unprecedented” long period of dry weather wreaks havoc on land across the country.
Retail experts are concerned that poor harvests may lead to rising prices if it forces supermarkets to buy more produce from overseas.
And it may even lead to shortages of some fruit and veg later in the year if these conditions persist – although the British Retail Consortium said it is not aware of any shortages so far.
Widespread drought across the UK
The crop damage is the result of months of dry conditions that have left five areas of the country battling drought – including Yorkshire and the East Midlands.
Six more areas stand on the brink of drought being classed by the Environment Agency as areas in prolonged dry weather, – including East Anglia and the North East of England.
An aerial view of Woodhead Reservoir amid low water levels on 11 May in Derby (Photo: Ryan Jenkinson/Getty Images)
South East Water, Southern Water, Thames Water and Yorkshire Water have all introduced hosepipe bans due to the low water levels.
These extremely poor drying and growing conditions come after the UK had the driest first seven months of the year since 1929 – with 26 per cent less rain than the long-term average for that period, according to the Met Office.
The shortfall has been much greater than that in some places – with Dorset and parts of Wales getting less than half their average rainfall last month.
Hot temperatures are also a problem
There have been four heatwaves so far this summer – while the past five months have all been in the top ten warmest for that month on record, adding to water shortages through evaporation.
And even the deluge from Storm Floris this month was just a drop in the ocean of what is needed to replenish water supplies – with a string of rainy months necessary to revive ground and irrigation water, experts said.
Reservoir levels fell across the country this summer and were well below the seasonal average (Photo: Christopher Furlong/Getty)
“It’s gonna take more than an odd shower to make this any better. This is quite unprecedented – the length of time we’ve been dry – and I’m afraid there’s an awful lot of people in a desperate situation,” said Rachel Hallos, a South Pennines beef and sheep farmer and vice president of the National Farmers Union.
“I was speaking to a farmer in Gloucestershire who hasn’t had any rain since the beginning of March. And their situation is desperate,” she told The i Paper.
“We have parts of the country where there’s been no water to irrigate the vegetable crops. We have other parts of the country who are at their wits end because of a lack of feed for cattle, sheep, dairy cows. They’re in a pretty desperate situation, scouring the country trying to buy feed,” she added.
Ms Hallos said some farms have had good crops this year. This is because rainfall can be highly localised, soil quality can vary considerably and the timing of various weather conditions is key and varies from one crop to another, she explains.
Overall, the picture is one of larger numbers of farmers struggling more than usual in areas across most of the country, she argues – pointing to East Anglia, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and the Midlands as being among those that are hit particularly hard.
Crop yields much lower
There is very little data at the moment to show how big an impact the dry conditions have had on crop yields.
However, official figures from the Agricultural and Horticulture Development Board give an early indication that all is not well in Britain’s farms – showing that winter wheat yields were 11 per cent below average at the point where 10 per cent of the crop had been harvested – on 23 July.
Norfolk farmer Jamie Burrows says his spring barley yields were down about a third this year (Photo: Jamie Burrows)
Jamie Burrows, a barley and wheat farmer in Norfolk, told The i Paper that his spring barley yields were down about a third this year – from six tonnes a hectare to four.
“I went to a meeting on Wednesday and this guy in Pembrokeshire in Wales said he had had some of his best-ever yields. He had a lot of rain at the right time and the crops looked fantastic,” he said.
“But you only need to go as far as the Midlands and across to here in East Anglia and we’re just way off where we would normally be. This is such a sobering time.”
Prices may rise
Retailers warn that poor crop yields could reduce home grown supplies and may, in turn, push up prices and reduce the variety of local produce on offer in the supermarkets.
“Food inflation has been rising over the last six months and is likely to rise further as retailers and their suppliers contend with increased regulatory costs, the effects of the last Budget, and the impact of climate change,” Andrew Opie, Director of Food and Sustainability at the British Retail Consortium told The i Paper.
“Reduced yields from poor UK harvests would likely put further pressure on food prices and will increase the need for imports to ensure availability for customers,” he said.
Experts point out that prices on crops such as wheat and barley tend to be set globally.
As such, they are less likely to be affected by poor growing conditions in the UK – although even those might come under pressure, for example if Iran was to one day carry out its threat of shutting the Strait of Hormuz, a major trade route, experts say.
But the prices of fruit and veg are typically much more dependent on local growing conditions and are therefore more likely to be affected, they argue.
The UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology’s latest hydrological outlook, published on 11 August, indicated it could be some months before we see enough rainfall to replenish water supplies.
It pointed out that the latest Met Office forecast “indicates an increased chance of dry conditions in August, particularly across southern areas…The overall chances of either dry or wet conditions over August-October as a whole are evenly balanced”.
By contrast, this is what the report said it needed: “Subsurface water deficits are still present in central and southern England, requiring high to unusually high rainfall to recover to normal levels by the end of the month.
“Over the next few months high levels of rainfall are required across central and southern England to recover to normal levels, particularly in the Anglian and Thames regions.”
While poor harvests may push up some fruit and veg prices the threat of new Brexit border checks increasing them further has been averted for now.
The UK government has put the planned checks on fruit and vegetables on hold while it negotiates a sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) agreement with Brussels.
The proposed SPS deal, which is expected to take months to finalise, would remove the need for border checks on plant and animal products entirely.