Shropshire's summer heatwave brings a tale of two harvests

The unusually hot summer of 2018 has proved tough for farmers across the UK.

Among other things, the scorching weather and lack of rain has damaged crops, and the grass used to feed farm animals too. Yields of key crops such as barley have fallen significantly in this year’s harvest as a result of the hot summer and massive swings in weather, leaving farmers counting the cost and consumers facing higher prices for food.

After record heatwaves and drought, when rain finally arrived it caused problems in some areas, particularly the north and west, as farmers have struggled to bring in wet crops.

Indications from the harvest are that yields of wheat are likely to be down by about a quarter, and those of staples such as potatoes, onions and carrots have plunged by as much as 20 per cent. While the impact of lower yields will be cushioned by higher farmgate prices for produce, many farmers are turning to their banks for increased loans to tide them over as the costs of fuel, fertiliser and feed have all risen sharply.

Livestock farmers have been hit as feed prices have increased, while the long hot and dry spell forced many to dig into their feed reserves, and straw was in short supply in some areas. Milk yields were depressed by the hot weather, as was the fertility of pigs.

One farmer who has been impacted by this year’s extreme weather is Rob Alderson, who farms near Craven Arms.

But he said farmers on land with soil better able to retain moisture such as his have seen better harvests.

“We had a late winter and then the summer came within days so the spring crops got affected by it when they were trying to develop their root systems,” he said. “I cut the spring barley about two weeks ago and it was a foot tall. Normally it would be knee high. The yield has been affected, down about 40 per cent.

“My farm is heavy clayed ground so the yields of winter crops are better than I feared. Farms with sandy ground would have probably got affected worse.

“I grow winter and spring barley. We had thunderstorms in the middle of the dry spell which gave us a bit of a breathing point for the winter barley. Twelve months ago the winter barley was worse because it was cold.”

Mr Alderson also said the weather has had an impact on his livestock.

“The Beast from the East came on the same day my first first lambs started to arrive,” he said.

“I have a farm full of lambs and have not sold as many as normal because the dry conditions have meant they are growing but not putting on a lot of meat. It has meant the market is subdued because people aren’t looking to buy lambs.

“I lost one or two calves during the height of the hot spell. I watched and watched but I think it was too hot and we had a couple of stillborns.

“One of the issues we had was a lack of water. We have springs connected to tanks which were lying empty and we had to fill them and move water around with machinery.”

He added: “We were impacted buy the weather but careful management has got us through.”

Hot weather a boost for apple crops

While the extreme weather conditions have caused shortages in many crops, in apples they have boosted early yields, with some growers enjoying a 12 per cent increase on last year.

The Beast from the East followed by a summer heatwave has helped growers to produce an early apple crop. Some growers have also claimed it is expected to be the tastiest crops of apples in decades.

The strong harvest follows a difficult season in 2017 when growers were hit by spring frosts, causing major crop losses. This year, by contrast, freezing temperatures and snow in the opening months of 2018 followed by a consistently hot summer has helped produce a bountiful harvest of apples, as well as a range of other fruits.

Tom Adams, who runs a fruit tree nursery in Weston Rhyn, near Oswestry, said: “Apples have been smaller because it has been dry.

“There is less juice because of the sunshine and more concentrated flavours meaning they are stronger and sweeter.

“I think in general people prefer sweeter apples.

“Herbs have stronger favours in the sunshine and it is the same with fruit.

“One of negative sides of the weather has been a lot of trees have spilt and branches have been tearing off.

“I think it has happened to trees in general, not just fruit trees, and it has made their structure weaker.

“I kept the trees heavily mulched with wood chip which holds the moisture in the soil and stopped them being in the direct sun.

“The ideal conditions for growing fruit is some rain and lots of sunshine, and a good cold winter.

Cherries

“Different varieties of fruit trees have different chilling requirements. They need a certain amount of hours where the temperature is below seven degrees Celsius.”

Mr Adams also grows other fruit including cherries, damsons and plumbs.

“Cherries have done amazingly well.

“They don’t like too much rain so it has meant there have been plenty left over after the birds have add what they wanted.

“But fruit such as plums have not done so good because of the late frost,” he added.

Although the Beast from the East and Storm Emma caused major disruption to the fresh produce industry in February and March, particularly in field vegetables, the extreme conditions actually helped British apples by delaying blossoms, thus protecting them from frost when they did finally bloom.

This, coupled with consistently sunny days throughout the summer, has helped boost sugar levels in the fruit, improving apples’ flavour this year.

RHS chief horticulturalist Guy Barter said: “After a disappointing 2017, we’re extremely fortunate that this year everything has come together to produce an incredible bounty of pears, plums, apples, tomatoes, grapes, berries, olives and all sorts of other delicious edibles.”

Despite this, he said some fruits “may have suffered drought stress or caught sunburn, but those that haven’t will have soaked up the sun and be all the juicier and more tasty for it.”