European floods

Now Germany is hit along with neighbours.

Its usually Spain that seems to get the worst floods alternating with desert type droughts.

65 people lost their lives, that is really bad. When we had the flooding that hit Sheffield, perhaps one or two deaths only. The countryside won't be reported on, must be hitting farmers really badly.

Although I curse the stony shallow soil, I'm very lucky to live on a hill.
 

onthehoof

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Cambs
Unbelievable! and they are saying the authorities should have been better prepared, how do you prepare for this?
61C701E4-4448-4A8E-9CDE-759CB1C6EC56.jpeg
 
200mm of rain in a couple of days would put anyone's soil in jeopardy even if you have got a snazzy drill and sun shining out of your orifice

Less than 8 inches. It's July.


"...has increased its water-infiltration rates tremendously. He was seeing rates of 1/2 inch per hour in 1991. Today it is 8 inches per hour."
 

Against_the_grain

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
S.E
Less than 8 inches. It's July.


"...has increased its water-infiltration rates tremendously. He was seeing rates of 1/2 inch per hour in 1991. Today it is 8 inches per hour."
Sorry are you saying that if that field in the picture above was farmed by Gabe Brown or the Groundswell brigade it would still be there? :ROFLMAO:
 
Sorry are you saying that if that field in the picture above was farmed by Gabe Brown or the Groundswell brigade it would still be there? :ROFLMAO:

No, I'm not, and that compartmentalised thinking is part of the problem. I know people who do water infiltration tests in the UK & Ireland and report it's dire, mostly due to compaction issues.

If a larger area is treated more appropriately then scenes like this can be stopped or reduced. When large amounts of rain fall and cannot be infiltrated they obviously have to GO somewhere. When that somewhere is also treated like dirt then erosion happens there too.

It's laughing at things like this that has farmers being dictated to by eNGO's informing Government policy across the world.
 

Scholsey

Member
Location
Herefordshire
No, I'm not, and that compartmentalised thinking is part of the problem. I know people who do water infiltration tests in the UK & Ireland and report it's dire, mostly due to compaction issues.

If a larger area is treated more appropriately then scenes like this can be stopped or reduced. When large amounts of rain fall and cannot be infiltrated they obviously have to GO somewhere. When that somewhere is also treated like dirt then erosion happens there too.

It's laughing at things like this that has farmers being dictated to by eNGO's informing Government policy across the world.

Pretty sure the Rhine valleys and Westphalia regions of Germany is where majority of Germanys potato acreage is grown, it’s not comparable with a American prairie in any shape or form, what’s happened here is a once in a 500 year rain event which have happened for the last billion years and will continue to do so and shape the landscape in the process as it always has.
 
Pretty sure the Rhine valleys and Westphalia regions of Germany is where majority of Germanys potato acreage is grown, it’s not comparable with a American prairie in any shape or form, what’s happened here is a once in a 500 year rain event which have happened for the last billion years and will continue to do so and shape the landscape in the process as it always has.

The question was, how can (presumably) farmers/land managers prepare for what is an extreme weather event. You do so by ensuring maximum soakage in the soil and in so far as possible living roots etc to hold same soil together. Failure to prepare is to bury ones head in the flood, continue with water run off and encourage vulnerable soils.

As to prairie vs spud ground, the difference is the management. Crops like spuds are likely to be the most difficult to manage, but there is always the choice to grow something else. That's the sentence where the veins rise but it's the truth. It's the reluctance to consider any change that will see more events like we're seeing now.

"We've always done it this way", and "that won't work here" will f**k humanity and farmers alike with it.
 

Scholsey

Member
Location
Herefordshire
The question was, how can (presumably) farmers/land managers prepare for what is an extreme weather event. You do so by ensuring maximum soakage in the soil and in so far as possible living roots etc to hold same soil together. Failure to prepare is to bury ones head in the flood, continue with water run off and encourage vulnerable soils.

As to prairie vs spud ground, the difference is the management. Crops like spuds are likely to be the most difficult to manage, but there is always the choice to grow something else. That's the sentence where the veins rise but it's the truth. It's the reluctance to consider any change that will see more events like we're seeing now.

"We've always done it this way", and "that won't work here" will fudge humanity and farmers alike with it.

So no one should be allowed to eat potatoes, carrots, onions etc? Madness.
 

Ashtree

Member
They are well down the road to outlawing meat. They have effectively banned peat harvesting.
Now they are coming for our spuds.

I’m quite happy in such scenario to wear my Covid mask 24/7 for the rest of my days.
It will keep in a bit of heat when I can’t burn peat and when steak and chips are off the menu, I wont bother eating. No point.
 

JWL

Member
Location
Hereford
The footage of caravans being wedged under and through bridge spans was amazing.

That happened in Stratford Upon Avon a few years back.

Water has incredible power.
When I lived and worked on Warwick Castle Park you'd never believe what would appear on the river meadows after a good flood. We had a dinghy complete with trailer still attached, one of the old boys who had been there from the '60s said it wasn't unusual to find an odd car floating down the river.
Those floods in the early noughties gave us those caravans you could see from the M5 as you went South from the M50 junction.
 

holwellcourtfarm

Member
Livestock Farmer
So no one should be allowed to eat potatoes, carrots, onions etc? Madness.
Nobody is saying that. Just that we have to be more mindful of where and how we grow them.

I've seen photos on here of fairly steep land in western England let for a year for spuds so ploughed out of grass. The ridges even ran up the slope. Then everyone acts surprised if we get a couple of inches of rain and half the field migrates.
 

holwellcourtfarm

Member
Livestock Farmer
They are well down the road to outlawing meat. They have effectively banned peat harvesting.
Now they are coming for our spuds.

I’m quite happy in such scenario to wear my Covid mask 24/7 for the rest of my days.
It will keep in a bit of heat when I can’t burn peat and when steak and chips are off the menu, I wont bother eating. No point.
Root crops are a really difficult one. They depend on extreme tillage and yet provide a large amount of human food.

That's probably why all those policy promoters claiming to know exactly what we need to do conveniently ignore them.
 
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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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

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