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Farmer's Plea: Extreme Weather Makes Planning Impossible
24 Jun
Summary
- Farmers struggle to plan due to unpredictable and extreme weather events.
- Crops are being lost, with cereal crops literally burning up from heat.
- Climate change is making heatwaves significantly warmer than usual.
Farmers are increasingly unable to plan for extreme weather, according to a farmer from Shropshire. Rory Lay, who raises beef, sheep, and grows arable crops, anticipates losing up to 20% of some crops due to the current hot conditions. He is implementing extra measures to keep his animals cool.
Lay described current weather patterns as unpredictable, with "very wet seasons in the summer and the hot spells earlier on in the year." His cereal crops are suffering from the heat, literally burning up. "It is really, really difficult to try and plan to change our crops or varieties to suit a weather we can't predict," he stated.
The National Farmers Union previously highlighted the impact of climate change, recommending regulatory changes and incentives for farmers to adapt. While farmers are adopting measures like planting different crops and installing solar panels, extreme weather is becoming more common.
Environment correspondent David Gregory-Kumar explained that climate change is now definitively linked to intensified heatwaves. Scientific studies suggest these events are 2C to 4C warmer than 20th-century averages, and they are occurring more frequently than models predicted.
