“We’ve had the wettest months of October, November and December since we started keeping records 27 years ago,” says Lincolnshire-based farmer Andrew Ward.
On his phone, he browses videos of nearby fields devastated by heavy rain this winter; one of which shows him in front of what looks like a lake.
“This is my godson’s farm,” he says, pointing to the 2-meter-deep water that completely covers the land. “It has been under water since October […] The farm was dug and fertilized [before the rain]So he may have lost £70,000 in one go.”
Fortunately, Ward’s 650-hectare (1,600-acre) farm, which produces wheat, sugar beets, barley and beans, did not become so flooded, but high rainfalls took their toll.
“We managed to plant about 25% of winter crops […] “Our yields this harvest will be terrible,” he adds.
Talk to farmers across the country and you’ll hear similar stories about how one of the wettest winters in decades destroyed thousands of acres of crops and put farms under tremendous financial pressure.
A few regions were spared.
In the 12 months to January, only four of England’s 139 hydrological regions (areas around rivers, lakes and other bodies of water) were classed as having normal rainfall levels. Of the remaining areas, 47 were rated as having extremely high levels and 76 (more than half) were rated as having exceptionally high levels.
The Kent region, known as the “garden of England” and home to many agricultural farmers, has experienced the wettest period of the last 12 months since records began.
Areas near major rivers such as the Wear, Don, Calder, Derwent, Mersey and Irwell reported the wettest six-month period since records began.
While January provided some respite, the UK Center for Ecology and Hydrology (UKCEH) said saturation from heavy rains in previous months meant the soil had no chance of drying out, and high rainfall in February also meant problems continued.
Flooding was at the top of the agenda in the conference halls and coffee breaks attended by 1,500 delegates of the National Farmers Union (NFU) this week.
In her welcome speech, outgoing NFU president Minette Batters pointed out the extreme weather conditions and said that some winter crops were not planted and some were flooded.
This was the experience of Henry Moreton, a grain farmer and Lincolnshire county deputy chairman of the NFU. Nearly 150 acres of his land have been flooded since the beginning of autumn, with some areas submerged by as much as five meters (15 ft).
“This is the worst year we’ve ever had for flooding,” he says.
Oilseed rape, winter wheat and barley crops have been greatly reduced and losses are estimated in six figures.
Dale Robinson, supply chain and technical officer for organic veg box company Riverford, described the season as “challenging” due to the cauliflower shortage and the impact on other brassicas such as kale and turnips.
Forecasts for this year’s harvest look bleak. The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) predicts that wheat production will fall by a quarter.
David Eudall, AHDB’s director of economics and analysis, said: “In 2019-2020, when we had a very similar wet spell for planting over the autumn and winter, we saw a 24% reduction in area planted.
“Given that we are in a similar area and have similar weather conditions, we would expect to see a similar magnitude of scale.”
This means that production drops from approximately 14 million tons of wheat to approximately 10 million tons.
The drier spring season often provides a chance for new crops to be planted. However, the increased demand for spring seeds from farmers who missed planting due to rain in the winter caused shortages and increased costs.
“Seed availability is a big issue,” says Ward. “Traders are trying to buy seeds from abroad, and this costs terrible amounts of money.”
Continued floodwaters mean some may not even have the chance to plant these seeds.
This has led to calls from rural communities for more flood defense spending and more support for those affected.
Farmers were particularly critical of the government expecting them to store water on their land – allowing it to flood – and not compensate for it if their land was on a flood plain, to prevent surrounding towns and villages from being flooded.
Rishi Sunak, who became the first prime minister to visit the NFU conference since 2008, came under criticism from Batters over this. He called for a review of the flood protection grant scheme to recognize the public benefit farmers do by storing water.
Sunak said the floods were “devastating” and the government was always open to suggestions on how to improve matters. But he defended the steps his government has taken to support farmers.
“We have support in place. The flood recovery framework is in place and working, with payments of up to £25,000 specifically for affected land,” he said.
Sunak added that as chancellor he had almost doubled flood defense spending to £5.2bn, with around 45% of this going to rural areas.
But those storing water in flood plains still have little chance of receiving any compensation. Alan Lovell, chief executive of the Environment Agency, said during a speech: “We cannot use public flood money for areas that are already natural flood plains.”
These reactions led to frustration among farmers and left many feeling abandoned.
Anger over the flood response, along with unpopular post-Brexit trade deals and the failure of the agricultural transition from EU farm payments, appear to have turned some farmers away from the Conservative party at the polls.
Deltapoll’s poll released during the conference showed support for the Conservative party in the 100 largest farmers’ constituencies had fallen from 58% in 2019 to a projected 32% this year. Labor received 36 percent of the vote. This is a seismic shift in the segment of the electorate that has traditionally overwhelmingly supported the Tories.
As the climate crisis is likely to bring about even more extreme weather events, finding a solution to protect farmland and financial resources will become increasingly important for governments of any party hoping to win or maintain the farmer vote.
Without more aid, votes from rural areas could quickly dry up, unlike the water pooling on hundreds of farms across the country.