Farmers' dismay as weather wrecks harvest
Published Date:
05 September 2008
FARMERS are in the grip of the worst harvest for 20 years after a dismal August has left hundreds of acres uncut.
At a time when they would normally be sowing seeds for next year, farmers are instead nervously looking to the skies hoping for an Indian summer to salvage the wheat and oats still standing around the district.
"We are a long, long, long way behind," said Mike Giffin, who has 400 acres unharvested between Horsham and Crawley.
"In the Horsham area it's pretty dire really. I do not ever remember it being this bad, perhaps in the early 1990s, but in the last few years we've had reasonable harvests."
In August there were only 130 hours of sunshine in the South East, making it the third dullest since records began in 1929, the Met Office said.
"The problem is that we haven't had enough sunshine and enough dry weather – here we are at the start of September and we're only at best halfway through harvest. Normally we'd be just about finished by now."
Read the full report in the County Times.
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The full article contains 267 words and appears in n/a newspaper.
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Last Updated:
05 September 2008 11:16 AM
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Source:
n/a
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Location:
Horsham
