Are we heading for another dry spring?

farmerm

Member
Location
Shropshire
I hate to complain about it being dry but April showers seem to be a think of the past! :banghead:


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followed by drier!!
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And more settled!!
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Scholsey

Member
Location
Herefordshire
We are officially balls deep into a dry spring here, had 2mm last night when 4-5 miles away had 10 and nothing worth putting your coat on for forecast for at least a fortnight.
 

Chae1

Member
Location
Aberdeenshire
No but it’s doing nothing local stuff been in 3 weeks no sign of it yet it’s Baltic here today the grass has all vanished as has winter crops
I was top dressing spring barley yesterday. First stuff through. Not a lot though. Fields white with snow again today.

Any form of moisture welcome.
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
Fertiliser applications aren’t really getting washed in just forming a glaze on the surface you could smash with a hammer. Put base fert on in the autumn and it gets washed away. Can’t travel over winter, wait till spring and it never gets washed in. Becomes “available” at harvest time when it isn’t needed then off down the drains in winter.
 

DeeGee

Member
Location
North East Wales
Every growing season seems to be the same in recent years, weeks of prolonged dry and often cold weather when we need warm April showers.
Then when we need settled dry weather for hay and corn harvests it is invariably either wet, or at best continuously unsettled!
The past few winters have also been exceptionally wet and largely mild. Seasons are definitely out of balance.
 

Werzle

Member
Location
Midlands
We have finally had some moisture here, just a shame its in the form of snow! A bit of a shock when i opened the curtains as it hadnt at 1.30 when i checked the cows
 

Goweresque

Member
Location
North Wilts
What a useless time of year to have a drought. Come hay making time in June it'll rain like a bitch. And when did we last have 6 weeks continuous dry weather at harvest ? 1726 ? Chuffing hell.

Depends when you mean by 'harvest'. We definitely had 6 weeks of unbroken sunshine in 2018, from mid June to early Aug. If you mean more around grain harvest time, ie mid July to end of August, then the last really dry August was 2003.

August is not really a low rainfall month, its average rainfall is higher than Feb, March, April, May, June, July and Sept, ie its about 5th out of 12 in the total monthly rainfall stakes. Its a sort of UK summer monsoon season.
 

The Ruminant

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Hertfordshire
I was listening to an American podcast the other day and the interviewee made an interesting observation. He said farmers always say “8 out of the last ten years have been overly dry and only 2 have had normal rainfall”. His point was that we think those two are normal and the dry years are exceptional when the truth is that the eight dry years are “normal” and we should tailor our thinking and our farm practices accordingly.

It is a different mindset to look at it that way - maybe we need to start thinking like this, here in the U.K. too??
 

Wombat

Member
BASIS
Location
East yorks
I was listening to an American podcast the other day and the interviewee made an interesting observation. He said farmers always say “8 out of the last ten years have been overly dry and only 2 have had normal rainfall”. His point was that we think those two are normal and the dry years are exceptional when the truth is that the eight dry years are “normal” and we should tailor our thinking and our farm practices accordingly.

It is a different mindset to look at it that way - maybe we need to start thinking like this, here in the U.K. too??

I am not sure we have had a zero recorded rainfall in April though which is what the forecast for here looks like
 

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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