Farmers facing early harvests as drought bites

The unseasonably warm weather will mean that some crops will begin being harvested weeks ahead of normal as Yorkshire’s farmers look with hope to the skies for rain after enduring one of the driest springs on record.

Some parts of Yorkshire have had 70 per cent less rain than average during the spring with less than 50mm (two inches) falling in some parts.

The lack of rain means that Yorkshire’s vining pea farmers are likely to start their harvests as early as next week, with yields expected to be down as a result of the dryness.

Meanwhile the region’s large- scale crop producers will be hoping for rain this month as they enter the critical growing period for crops such as wheat and oilseed rape.

The chief executive of the Processors and Growers Association, Salvador Potter, said the weather was the warmest he had seen since the infamously dry 1976.

He added: “We are expecting to see crops being harvested well ahead of schedule.

“It is quite extraordinary. We will now face quite a tight window for harvesting activity.

“There is no question that yields will be down. However, vining peas have held up reasonably well – better than beans, which have suffered.”

Nevertheless he said that the most damage done to crops had not been from the arid conditions but rather from the brief periods of frost seen in early May.

According to data from the Met Office, much of Yorkshire’s farmland received around half of the rainfall it would usually experience over the spring months.

The business manager for soils, crops and water at the Agricultural Development Advisory Service, Neil Pickard, told the Yorkshire Post that farmland across Yorkshire was very dry indeed, adding: “Last week we had two or three inches of rain which helped a little bit but not a lot.

“As each week passes we get more concerned about yield.”