Farmers reflect on challenging year in South East

Berry growers are currently reporting a glut

With summer harvest now well under way, farmers are reflecting on a challenging year because of the wet weather.

Berry growers are currently reporting a glut, unable to sell tonnes of fruit, with other crops also affected.

It comes as farmers across the country are showcasing, for 24 hours, all the effort that goes into producing our food.

Fruit grower Tim Chambers from Maidstone said he will have over-produced about 100 tonnes of strawberries, and over the next 10 days, 60 to 70 tonnes of raspberries.

Tim Chambers said he will have over-produced about 100 tonnes of strawberries

“Some will go for jam, some freezing and the rest to an anaerobic digester, which generates electricity for the National Grid,” he said.

He said the problem for berry growers was low levels of sunlight early in the season, because of too much cloud and rain.

“When you have changes in the weather, it starts to concertina up. So your best laid plans, where you plant early to come slightly earlier, and later to come later, don’t work.

“It tends to push them together. So right now we almost have the perfect storm where early crops have come late and the late crops are on time. So we have a lot of fruit coming now.”

Hay making has been disrupted by the rain this year

Meanwhile, hay making has also been disrupted by the rain and the impact has been felt by arable farmers.

Andrew Hall from west Kent, who farms with vintage equipment for a hobby, said: “It’s another difficult year for the commercial farming fraternity as their routines have been delayed due to the weather.

"Their silage and hay crops have started to merge with their arable crops as well.

“The hay has been very dense, but due to the delay in being able to cut it and the heavy rains that we’ve had, it’s caused the grass to lodge and tangle which has made the vintage equipment rather difficult to use.”

Farmers across the country are currently showcasing the work they do as part of a project to increase support.

Farm24, an annual digital initiative happening on Thursday, gives farmers the opportunity to show the public the work they do.

Andrew Hall makes hay with vintage equipment

Sinead Fenton, who grows edible flowers on her farm in East Sussex, is an ambassador for the project.

She said: “At the moment, a lot of farmers are struggling.

"We are struggling with the climate, we are struggling with the economic situation that we are all in, so we really do need people to get behind us.

“I think showing a little bit of everything; the good, the bad and the ugly, might help.”