Country diary: This is how bad the heatwave has got for us arable farmers – I’m going on holiday | Colin Chappell

Brigg, Lincolnshire: I should be busy, but the boom-bust climate has upset all my usual routines By the time you read this, I will be away in the Scottish Borders – a British arable farmer on holiday in August? This is unheard of. I’ve never done it myself in 30 years of farming. The reason I’m going away is that, remarkably, I have very little to do, and it’s all down to this destructive modern climate. We have finished the harvest, all done in almost entirely the month of July. Overall our farm will be 20% down on our long-term average yield, with winter cropping 2 tonnes per hectare and spring cropping 1 tonne per hectare below normal. Winter barley will be the only crop close to normal yields due to its natural maturity at the time of the first heatwave in late May. Beans finished five weeks ahead of schedule, and are almost 50% down on expectations. So, what to do? Normally I would be drilling cover crops and soon oilseed rape, but there is no point – the soil is just too dry. Instead, I’m doing odd jobs like digging up “blown” land drains (bursts in the piping deep underground that is the backbone of our healthy soils). Meanwhile, traditional hedgerow plants

Aug 13, 2026 → Aug 13, 2026