{"id":110271,"date":"2024-08-08T07:23:36","date_gmt":"2024-08-08T07:23:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/08\/after-the-floods-less-wheat-in-a-catastrophic-year-on-farms\/"},"modified":"2024-08-08T07:23:36","modified_gmt":"2024-08-08T07:23:36","slug":"after-the-floods-less-wheat-in-a-catastrophic-year-on-farms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/08\/after-the-floods-less-wheat-in-a-catastrophic-year-on-farms\/","title":{"rendered":"After the floods: Less wheat in a “catastrophic year” on farms"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"After<\/div>


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\"BBCBBC<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Mike Wilkins had floods in the spring, now his land is cracked and dry<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Farmers are counting the cost of the long, wet winter as they start to bring in record low harvests of grain.<\/p>\n

The amount of wheat planted has fallen by nearly a tenth, and two thirds of British farmers say they have lost money.<\/p>\n

Throughout winter and spring many fields were waterlogged, crops that had been sown were lost and farmers couldn\u2019t get onto fields to sow anything.<\/p>\n

Mike Wilkins, an arable farmer in Wiltshire, lost about half his wheat. He said: \u201cWe have lost thousands and thousands of pounds this year, it has been catastrophic.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Flood<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Hundreds of farmers like Mike Wilkins had flooded fields and lost wheat they had sown<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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When I first met Mike Wilkins in May, he had a lake on his farm.<\/p>\n

High on the Marlborough Downs, you could see for miles around.<\/p>\n

But where wheat should have stood, there were swans and ducks paddling around.<\/p>\n

Other fields were so wet the wheat sown had failed, rotting in the ground.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we don\u2019t make a loss it will be a miracle,\u201d he told me at the time<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Wheat<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The wheat harvest will be down this year, with nearly 10% less sown<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Since then, the sun has come out and what wheat they could sow now looks OK.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t be fooled,\u201d he says with a rueful smile. \u201cIt\u2019s thin and full of weeds we couldn\u2019t spray because the ground was so wet we couldn\u2019t get a tractor on.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ears are golden now, and Mike picks a handful of grains to test for moisture.<\/p>\n

He grinds them in a handheld device, which will tell him how moist the wheat still is.<\/p>\n

\u201cI need 15% max,\u201d he shows me.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut look \u2013 that\u2019s still 19%, way too high.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just then, it starts to drizzle again.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need a few good solid sunny days to dry this, before we can cut it,\u201d he tells me, looking at the dark clouds overhead.<\/p>\n

It is anxious, stressful work, but this is actually a normal West Country harvest routine.<\/p>\n

August is often wet, harvest always a tricky juggle.<\/p>\n

Farmers wait for the perfect weather window, then crank up the combine, whatever the day or the hour, to get the harvest home.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Field<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Half the wheat in this field rotted in the floods, and was replanted with beans, on the right, which earn thousands of pounds less<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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But this year is different. Even when they can get harvesting, much of the wheat never got sown in the first place.<\/p>\n

On Mike\u2019s farm, as well as the lake they had several fields so waterlogged they missed the moment to plant wheat. Later, as they dried out, he got some beans in which will go for cattle feed.<\/p>\n

\u201cFinancially they will make hundreds and hundreds of pounds less per hectare,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis field is over 30 hectares, so that\u2019s thousands of pounds less profit.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we have 200 hectares more like this. It\u2019s been a really messy year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Wilkins, and his sister and parents who farm here, are far from alone.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

‘Stark picture’<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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Official surveys from the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board recently found the amount of wheat planted is 9% down, the lowest for 20 years. Oilseed Rape is 20% down.<\/p>\n

At the National Farmers\u2019 Union, they\u2019ve reported their lowest ever farm confidence index<\/a>. Some 65% of farmers say their incomes are down. 82% cited extreme weather as their biggest challenge.<\/p>\n

NFU President Tom Bradshaw said the results \u201cpaint a really stark picture\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cConfidence has collapsed after months of devastating flooding, unsustainably high production costs and low market returns, and against a backdrop of reduced farm support as we transition to a new Domestic Agriculture Policy and associated farm support,” he says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Tom<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Tom Bradshaw, President of the National Farmers’ Union, says confidence has “collapsed”<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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It was not just a wet winter, or a wet spring. Farmers had 18 months of rain, from September 2023 to May 2024 more rain fell than at any time since records began in 1836.<\/p>\n

And experts agree this is “the new normal”.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will get more extremes of weather,\u201d says Prof Nicola Cannon, of Cirencester\u2019s Royal Agricultural University.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore wet winters, more dry summers, more extremes. And our soils are unable to cope, because of the way we have farmed them in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n

To see how farmers are now working differently, I revisit another farm that I last saw under water.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"DebbieDebbie Wilkins<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Debbie Wilkins’ son Daniel could kayak for miles on her flooded fields<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Debbie Wilkins\u2019 farm had literally become a boating lake, her children kayaked on several miles of clear water which reached to the River Severn.<\/p>\n

But she was philosophical about the hundreds of acres of pasture sitting under two metres of flood waters.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are just doing their job,\u201d she told me in January<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“It takes the pressure off the river and protects the properties below us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, the grasses have come back. She shows me ancient wild grasses and flowers that have withstand long cold months under water.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s green again, after six months of flooding,\u201d she smiles.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Flowers<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Flowers after floods: ancient grasses and wildflowers have survived six months of floodwaters<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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But the length of the flood has cost her money. Normally, the grass would bounce back in the spring and they would cut 600 bales of hay from these meadows.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe still haven\u2019t taken a hay cut this year,\u201d she says. \u201cI think we\u2019ll do well to get 150 bales.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Wilkins is part of a new movement called \u201cNature Friendly Farming\u201d. The idea is to work with nature, using as few pesticides and insecticides as possible and \u201cletting nature do the science\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Debbie<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

“We’re trying to heal the soil,” says Debbie Wilkins<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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She shows me what she means in another field hit by the floods.<\/p>\n

Like hundreds across the West Country, this field was waterlogged. It was meant for maize, to feed her cows. But with no chance to get a tractor on in the spring, she missed that planting.<\/p>\n

Instead, once it had dried out, she \u201cemptied the shed\u201d, planting a random mix of crops.<\/p>\n

Now it\u2019s a rainbow of mustard, linseed, buckwheat, you name it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to heal the soil\u201d, Ms Wilkins explains.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen there are plants growing in it, that will make the soil and the microbes function better when it\u2019s either very wet or very dry, and we\u2019ll need to add less chemicals to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prof Cannon says we need more of this.<\/p>\n

“We need to build resilience in our soil, so it can rebound after extreme drought or rainfall.<\/p>\n

“We\u2019ve got to be prepared for more challenging conditions, be it floods or droughts. And we must condition our soil to work for us as the climate changes.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Farming in a changing climate<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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