The persistent heavy rainfall that has caused the floods which claimed lives in the UK over the past week, is taking its toll on field vegetable crops nationwide.
Paul Southall, who farms in Worcestershire, said: “We are harvesting purple sprouting broccoli at the moment, but we are having to be very careful on the land. It has been a late crop and the quality is good, but yields are down and generally the crop has not grown as well as we would normally expect it to.”
The picture is similar on other brassica lines, so producers will be looking for better prices to compensate for the lower output. And customers will find it hard to switch into different production areas as much of the country has been affected by the increased volume of rainfall.
In Cornwall, one grower says it is the worst year he has ever experienced with the ground at saturation point and nowhere else for the rain to run off to. “Some cauliflower crops have been completely washed out of the ground,” he said. “It has had a massive impact on spring green cabbage. Yields are right down. It is absolutely necessary that we achieve decent prices for what we have left.”
In Lincolnshire the position seems little better. Agronomist Phil Effingham reports that the vegetable harvest is continuing, but waterlogging in fields is leaving producers with longer-term worries. He said: “Broccoli finished very late and now the Brussels sprout harvest is in full swing. The silt soils are very wet and there is concern that soil structure issues will follow that will affect crops next year. That is the real worry.”
Growers would usually drill and put a winter wheat crop, which helps restore soil structure, but cauliflower is running late and producers may miss that window.
Effingham said: “There is widespread flooding and the water is just standing on the fields. An inch and a half fell at the weekend and another half inch on Monday. What you have to remember is that the soil has been waterlogged almost since July and has not had any real chance to dry out.”.