English farmers suffered greatly

Rising energy prices, droughts and historic heatwaves are putting more pressure on English farmers. Some are forced to make painful choices to save part of the harvest.

Exploding energy prices, droughts and historic heatwaves… all “mass blows” for English farmers. Potato and yam grower Andrew Blenkron is one of them. To the head of the 4,250 hectare estate, 130km north-east of London, he testifies to his plight.

Starting with the electricity bills he owes this year. He says the amount will quadruple to reach “370,000 pounds sterling” (438,000 euros). A particularly salty note is explained by the triple charges, but also the need to pump more water due to the weather. In England, temperatures have once again crossed 30 degrees Celsius.

With “unbelievable heat and very dry air”, the potato fields need “probably twice as much” water, assures Andrew Blenkron, contemplating one of the domain’s two giant tanks with a capacity of 363 million litres. During this season, its level should reach a maximum of 5 meters, but it is almost empty.

Only 10% of normal rainfall in July

The land in this part of Suffolk is very fertile and receives sufficient nutrients and water. However, the region received only 10% of normal rainfall in July, and less than 50% in three months.

The past exceptionally dry months in central and southern England have led to restrictions on water consumption in some areas and have been a blow to fruit and vegetable growers, who are seeing their produce decimated.

Euston Estate irrigates potatoes, it’s harvest season. In contrast, sugar beets are left to fend for themselves. Discovered by accident by Andrew Blenkeron, some, about the size of a volleyball, sport a wire and stunted appearance.

Yields are halved

“We think the yield will be halved,” says the manager, while hoping that the rains will return with the seasonal opening of the sugar mill at the end of September, because “white yam can recover (from the crowd). Significantly.

On the other hand, it is already late for fodder corn used in cattle feed, which will cause “real difficulties this winter” to run the estate’s methanization unit.

The oil shock has tripled the price of fertilizers and doubled the price of fuel for tractors and harvesters. Euston, owned by the Dukes of Grafton for 350 years, is forced to bear these increases alone as prices for the 2022 harvests are contractually fixed.

On the other hand, “if energy prices stay at the same level next year, we will have to pass these costs on to our customers,” warns Andrew Blenkron, adding that inflation is already the highest since the 1980s. Adequate rains this winter will “make very difficult decisions on how much we’re going to sow”.