As the wheat harvest approaches most farmers are hoping for the summer weather to continue and looking forward to a lot better crop than we had last year.
I say most farmers because there are a few growers in this area who feel that wheat does not give them enough return and only grow vegetables and/or flowers, which just shows how good land is in the Spalding area.
Rainfall has been below average this summer, which is no bad thing as it is far more pleasant to be farming when soil is not sticking to your boots. July was the first month for 16 months when the temperature was above average: no wonder plants and crops are behind their usual time slot.
This time last year we were thinking we were going to have a good harvest, especially as prices of wheat and rape were rising. This year we know that the UK will have a small harvest as there are so many hectares of land that lie fallow but prices are falling, which illustrates so well that the prices we receive for our wheat, barley and rape crops has nothing to do with what happens here; it is a combination of the weather, politicians and the price of oil. Of those three, I believe the politician has the greatest effect on our prices.
Farmers can feed the world but we cannot feed and fuel the world and the more fuel the politician asks us to grow the higher the prices we will receive from our crops.