‘We need reservoirs built’: drought leaves UK farms begging for government aid

theguardian.com:

It last rained on the Euston Estate, near Thetford in Suffolk, a fortnight ago, although the 6mm that fell evaporated almost immediately on contact with the parched earth. Before that, the farm hadn’t seen any rain since June, said Andrew Blenkiron, director of the estate belonging to Henry FitzRoy, 12th Duke of Grafton.

“It has been so dry since April. Some days we only had rain at one end of the farm,” Blenkiron said. The 15mm that fell in July was a third of the usual total.

The hot weather meant winter wheat and barley could be harvested early on the estate’s 2,428 hectares (6,000 acres) of farmed land. But it also meant lower yields: wheat was down by a quarter, and barley by 10%, although higher prices helped soften the blow. The lack of water is critical for crops still in the ground – onions, potatoes, sugar beet – and for livestock including cattle and pigs.

The latest heatwave has made things worse. When the Observer visited on a scorching August day, the sun was beating down as the pigs sought relief in troughs of mud. Cattle in three of the four fields were already being fed straw – three months earlier than usual.

“We started feeding them straw three weeks ago when we had those extreme temperatures,” Blenkiron said. “That’s what nailed the grass and finished it off completely.”

The drought is just the latest challenge for UK food producers, who are also grappling with soaring costs for feed, tractor fuel and fertiliser, as well as shortages of workers.

In an onion field, Blenkiron let a handful of fine, dusty earth trickle through his fingers. The farm is in Breckland, an area on the Suffolk-Norfolk border known for its sandy soil, which sits on a chalk aquifer. Such soil is great for root vegetables – including