Farmers unable to harvest crops after Storm Babet

Charles Goadby said if the farm had harvested, damage could have lasted years

Farmers in the West Midlands region say heavy rainfall from Storm Babet has left them facing hard choices.

The ground is so wet they are unable to carry out work from harvesting the current crops to planting the next.

Vital crops, such as maize for cattle food, are just sitting in soggy fields, with the risk they may start to rot.

Asked about weather generally, Charles Goadby, from Manor Farm, Warwickshire, said food price rises were "more than likely" if "it carries on like this".

At the farm near Nuneaton, Storm Babet packed a month's rain into a day, leaving fields of maize too wet to harvest.

Mr Goadby said it was "just at the point now where we've probably got a couple of weeks left from last year's crop".

He stated: "If we came on and harvested today [Tuesday], we'd be harvesting the crop [in] really wet conditions, it's going to turn into... a mess.

"We're going to be dragging a lot of muck out onto the roads, which isn't great.

"The structural damage that we're going to be doing to this field and all the other fields, where we're sinking in, getting stuck... that's going to be damage that's going to last probably five, six years maybe."

Mr Goadby said he had noticed a change in weather on the farm

Even if farmers could get seeds into fields this wet, they would just rot.

Mr Goadby said he had noticed a change in weather on the farm, adding "we're seeing it throughout the year".

He added: "Instead of getting the average steady rainfall when we normally see it, we're getting longer periods of drought and then longer periods of intense heavy rain, like we had just last week.

"We're a country that's not self-sufficient at the best of times, so it's only going to be putting more pressure on.

"I'm afraid at the end of the day you're more than likely going to see price rises on food, if it carries on like this."

On Manor Farm, Storm Babet packed a month's rain into a day, which has left fields of maize too wet to harvest