Farmers and growers will have to become used to dealing with more extreme weather conditions, including higher levels of autumn and winter rainfall.
With many farmers and growers struggling with the second wet autumn in two years, the warning came as it was announced that 3rdOctober 2020 was the wettest day on record for UK-wide rainfall.
Tim Sisson of drainage specialists William Morfoot told the Eastern Daily Press that in terms of daily rainfall, 2020 was a “near carbon copy” of 2019. “A lot of growers have commented that the autumn of 2020 has produced worse conditions than 2019 in terms of the volume and frequency of the rainfall,” he said. “This year, many crops which have been drilled have seen seeds literally rot in the ground owing to saturated soils.”
In the same article, Tom Dye, managing director of Albanwise Farming said that farmers had to get used to such conditions and be much timelier with their operations as a result. “The ‘new norm’ is that the climate has changed,” he said. “Over the 13 years I have been farming in north Norfolk the management decisions a farm manager has to take are much greater, and the working windows are definitely narrower now because of the climate.
In January, a survey published by Farmers Weekly revealed that four out of five farmers said they were experiencing more extreme weather conditions first-hand, from droughts and hot summers to intense rainfall.
Photo caption: Farmers need to become used to more extreme weather, including rain
Photo source: Needpix