Continuing dry weather depletes farm's supplies

John Roberts said a decreased barley harvest also meant he had less straw

A year of warm and dry weather has impacted farms, with one Shropshire farmer saying his straw stores are about half what they would normally be.

John Roberts said just by looking at his land you could see "just brown, there's no green at all".

"I've got probably enough grass for my sheep, but if I was running any more sheep, then you'd have to feed them, you'd have to feed them with something," he said.

Mr Roberts, from Bearstone Fruit Farm near Market Drayton, said he had cut his flock of sheep down, "so I haven't got many".

He explained that a decreased barley harvest meant he was able to produce less straw, leaving him with "very little".

Normally at this time of year he would have filled three bays with straw, but he said currently it was likely he was "going to fill one-and-a-half or so. It's half the amount of straw."

Mr Roberts said he had probably got enough grass for his sheep

Mr Roberts said large dairy farms were nearby, pointing out "these guys have got hundreds of cows".

He added: "They're having to feed their winter stocks, they're having to buy in silage and whatever to feed the cows because there's no grass, especially in this area.

"We seem to have missed all the thunderstorms and we've had absolutely no rain at all, all summer."

He said now it was "just runs of dry weather or deluges of rain"

Reflecting on the "more extreme" weather now, he said there used to be "little wet spells and dry spells, but it was all sort of mixed together... warm weather, wet weather".

"Now, it's just runs of dry weather or deluges of rain coming and stuff and it makes farming very difficult."