The Environment Agency today (Thursday, October 17) warned that “a very wet year is already delaying harvest time for some farmers and making conditions for harvest very difficult”.
James Wimpress, of the Environment Agency, said: “Farming is tough right now.
“The longer that harvest is delayed, the smaller the window is to plant any form of cover crop to bind the soil and reduce runoff and cultivate the ground to reduce compaction”.
According to Wimpress winters are only going to get tougher, with more rain for longer periods.
“This means more soil erosion, runoff, pollution and flooding, unless farming practices become more resilient,” he warned.
Environment Agency
The Environment Agency is currently promoting its Flood Action Week which runs from 14 to 20 October and is encouraging everyone to know what “actions they can take to prepare for flooding”.
In Devon and Cornwall, the agency is concerned about the impact heavy and prolonged rainfall is having on farmland, particularly in areas with steep slopes.
It has warned that late harvesting of crops like maize ahead of winter can leave bare, compacted land.
“Heavy rain in these conditions means runoff will erode soil, pollute watercourses and flood roads and neighbouring properties,” the agency has detailed.
It had also advised farmers that when soil becomes too wet and soft for heavy machinery to travel on, “farmland is churned up with little opportunity to correct any problems by cultivating the ground to remove wheel marks and compaction”.
The Environment Agency is now urging farmers to plan ahead to reduce runoff and “rethink cropping next year”.
The agency is advising them to:
- Avoid growing high-risk crops on fields which tend to be naturally wet where compaction is inevitable and difficult to remove late in the year;
- Avoid growing high-risk crops on fields which tend to be naturally wet where compaction is inevitable and difficult to remove late in the year;
- Avoid using fields with erodible, sandy soils on steep slopes where runoff could wash onto neighbouring roads and communities;
- Avoid leaving compacted and bare soils over winter, cultivating and using cover crops after harvest where needed;
- Assess soil condition to develop a long-term plan of improvement, such as increasing organic matter over time.
It has also said that farmers should plan future cropping to “avoid high-risk situations” and make use of any available funding from agri-environment schemes such as the Sustainable Farming Initiative.
