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Incessant rain has left thousands of acres of crops under water, with livestock farmers facing delayed turnouts and soaring hay and straw costs.

New figures from levy body AHDB revealed cropped areas have dropped significantly this winter, with wheat falling 15 per cent and winter barley by 23 per cent – the largest reduction in cropped areas for both varieties since 2020.

See also: Warm, wet winters spark call for greater crop reslience, say scientists

Meanwhile, oilseed rape is down 28 per cent, which according to AHDB, could be the biggest reduction since the crop was introduced to the UK in the 1980s.

Rainfall

Last month saw the southern half of the UK experience its wettest February on record as some areas received more than twice the average rainfall.

This followed repeated periods of heavy rain which swept across the country in the autumn and winter of 2023.

In October, Scotland had its wettest two-day period on record as Storm Babet raged, while subsequent storms Elin, Fergus and Gerrit all took their toll delivering a provisional UK rainfall for winter of 445.8mm, which is 129 per cent above the 1991-2020 average.

NFU president Tom Bradshaw said a lack of water management had caused things to go ‘drastically wrong' and called for Government intervention.

See also: From the editor: "Winter crops have been waterlogged, growers are struggling to get anywhere near spring fieldwork and livestock farmers are already seeing hay and straw prices climb"

Mr Bradshaw said greater funding was needed by the Environment Agency, so it can deliver a ‘proactive plan of management and re-investment in the watercourses and flood defences'.

Rachel Hallos, NFU vice-president, said: "This winter has got to have been the wettest we have had on-farm, we have a huge backlog of fieldwork and repairs to get on top of when we start to dry out, but I have to say our problems are nothing compared to those who have been looking at waterlogged fields for months."

Ally Hunter Blair, who grows wheat OSR, barley, sugar beet and soyabeans at Ross-on-Wye in Herefordshire, said: "Right now it feels like farming is a waste of time. It is just too difficult. For the first time in my life, I have been asking myself why I do this. It would be much easier to just go and be a lorry driver.

Production

"It has been a very hard few months. I am now seriously considering taking the fields out of food production and just putting them in SFIs – bird feed or bee pollen."

Fife-based Alan Steven farms 297 acres growing premium malting barley for whisky, porridge oats and winter wheat for seed production, as well as a range of vegetables and seed potatoes.

He said the weather was another ‘constant worry' which was adding to farmer's increasing workload and financial pressures.

See also: An eye on the grain market: Persistent wetness has hit UK wheat harvest prospects even more than had been initially thought

"In the first storm [Babet] we lost a whole field of sprouts. Now the crops are not as far forward as I would like. Some are just stagnant. I managed to get one crop of winter barley sprayed during a dry spell but then the rains came again and so a waste of time.

"We are working 12 to 14-hour days and just not getting a return. As far as I can see, the Government has done nothing - there needs to be long-term planning. Nowadays, farming in just in the lap of the gods."

Rob Atkin, who grows wheat, oats, beans and OSR in Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, said the Government now ‘needed to think' about how water is managed.

See also: Providing extended spring drilling windows in wet conditions

"They could do much more – I understand they are concerned about biodiversity but when it comes to water, farmers are the scapegoats. We work hard to protect the land and then developers are allowed to come along and concrete over everything. The fields cannot cope."

Defra has been approached for comment.