“The drought is certainly not helping UK food security at a time when the global situation with energy prices as a result of the Ukraine conflict is already impacting the farming industry. Some farmers reduced fertilizers applications in the spring in response to higher prices, and yields are now being compromised still further by the drought but only in some places. Cereal yields are apparently holding up on heavier soils that retain moisture but are down on lighter soils.
“The harvest is earlier too. It is too soon to say what all this adds up to, but repeated summer seasons of higher temperatures and low rainfall could shift arable production westwards in the long term, an interesting prospect for west country farmers. For livestock farmers pastures are now seriously affected, yields of second cut silage were down in some instances and don’t even mention the prospects of third cut silage in September to those dairy farmers who rely on that level of production to see them through the winter.”
