Farming has to be done differently on land where the saline level of the available water is just too high.
That’s the experience of Proctor Bros (Long Sutton) Ltd where some of the land used to grow arable crops is at Wingland at Sutton Bridge.
Farm manager Adrian Howell said about 2,300 acres at Wingland were originally reclaimed from the sea in about 1860, with further reclamation work carried out over the intervening years.
Thankfully, the high tides that threatened to engulf parts of Sutton Bridge before Christmas did not affect the farmland.
Adrian admitted: “We were concerned by the tidal surge before Christmas that came up to the sea bank; it was concerning but not frightening. The concern wasn’t the sea defences, but maybe the height of the river bank along the Nene needs looking at.”
Adrian explained the farm did not irrigate because of the salinity of the available water.
He said: “Some of the neighbours are extracting water from well points where they might have identified fresh water. We looked at it and didn’t identify any. We don’t irrigate at all.”
The farm grows a variety of crops, such as wheat, 450 acres of potatoes, 600 acres of sugar beet, as well as oil seed rape and pulses on between 4,500-5,000 acres spread across the district. At the time Growers spoke to Adrian, he had about 35 acres of sugar beet left to harvest.