Post by Rebecca Pearce, WA Pearce & Sons Farms
At the start of this year, many UK farmers were battling waterlogged land. January and February brought relentless rain, with fields resembling lakes rather than productive farmland. Work was delayed, plans pushed back, and growers were left waiting for soils to recover. Just a few weeks later, the picture has shifted dramatically.
On our farm in Lincolnshire, April delivered just 1mm of rainfall. What was once saturated ground is now dry, hard, and cracked. A small amount of rain fell overnight on 1st May, but it was about 10mm for us, and just 5mm on our main farm at Deeping, so it barely scratched the surface. It is just not enough to replenish moisture levels in the soil or sustain crops through this critical stage of growth.
This rapid swing from excess water to drought-like conditions highlights one of the biggest challenges facing modern agriculture: volatility. Farmers are used to working with the weather but increasingly, it’s the unpredictability and extremes that are harder to manage.
For arable farming, timing is everything. After such a wet winter, many crops were already under pressure, with delayed drilling and compromised soil structure. Now, with so little rainfall, those same crops are struggling in a different way, unable to access the moisture they need to grow.
The cracks appearing in fields are a visible sign of stress within the soil. As it dries, its ability to support plant growth declines. Nutrient uptake becomes more difficult, root development is restricted, and yield potential begins to fall.
So, what does this mean for us on our farm?
- Irrigation: We’re irrigating sugar beet just to get it established – something we would usually only do for potatoes. It’s both costly and time-consuming at one of the busiest points in the farming calendar.
- Fertiliser: We apply granular fertiliser, but without rain it won’t break down and become available to the crop.
- Crop stress: Many crops already have shallow root systems following the wet winter. They now need consistent rainfall to survive, yet signs of stress are already showing, with crops turning yellow and struggling to progress.
- Soil condition: The land is becoming increasingly hard, making operations like hoeing sugar beet difficult, if not impossible.
There’s a common perception that farmers are always, “Moaning about the weather.” But this is why. Weather isn’t background noise in farming. It dictates every decision, every cost and, ultimately, every yield.
And when it swings like this, from one extreme to the other in a matter of weeks, the impact isn’t theoretical. It’s already happening in the field, and it will be felt further down the line. Rain isn’t just welcome now – it’s critical.
Good article Rebecca I have just been on a Black Sluice IDB inspection around South Kyme Ewerby and the land is unbelievably dry large cracks in the soil you would expect in autumn we really do need a steady rain as crops are showing signs of drought.
Thanks Peter, that is really kind of you.
We have two farms that fall under IDBs close to Black Sluice (Welland & Deepings for Deeping, South Holland for Moulton Chapel) and we can only irrigate at the Deeping farm where we have 3 abstraction licences. Really hoped the forecast rain today would show up, but no signs yet, it only seems like 5 minutes since some of the fields were like lakes.