Persevering with dry climate depletes Shropshire farm’s provides

A yr of heat and dry climate has impacted farms, with one Shropshire farmer saying his straw shops are about half what they’d usually be.

John Roberts mentioned simply by his land you would see “just brown, there’s no green at all”.

“I’ve got probably enough grass for my sheep, but if I was running any more sheep, then you’d have to feed them, you’d have to feed them with something,” he mentioned.

Mr Roberts, from Bearstone Fruit Farm close to Market Drayton, mentioned he had minimize his flock of sheep down, “so I haven’t got many”.

He defined {that a} decreased barley harvest meant he was in a position to produce much less straw, leaving him with “very little”.

Normally right now of yr he would have crammed three bays with straw, however he mentioned at the moment it was doubtless he was “going to fill one-and-a-half or so. It’s half the amount of straw.”

Mr Roberts mentioned giant dairy farms have been close by, stating “these guys have got hundreds of cows”.

He added: “They’re having to feed their winter stocks, they’re having to buy in silage and whatever to feed the cows because there’s no grass, especially in this area.

“We appear to have missed all of the thunderstorms and we have had completely no rain in any respect, all summer season.”

Reflecting on the “extra excessive” weather now, he said there used to be “little moist spells and dry spells, however it was all kind of blended collectively… heat climate, moist climate”.

“Now, it is simply runs of dry climate or deluges of rain coming and stuff and it makes farming very tough.”