Dry weather creating 'extreme outcomes' for Shropshire farmers, facing down worst drought since 1976
"Obviously everywhere's very, very dry," says pedigree sheep farmer Edward Garratt, pointing at the view from the grassland which stretches away from his grazing land in the foothills of the Wrekin, all the way to north Shropshire and beyond.
"I've had no grass regrowth since hay time, and my silage and haylage crops were around 25 per cent of where they should have been.
"It's a real gamble at the moment, who'd be a farmer?"
It's a question which may be on the mind of many of the county's beleaguered farmers, currently facing down the county's driest start to the year for fifty years.
The normally verdant fields of Shropshire are inked in a muted palette of yellow and brown, while huge farm reservoirs, close to overtopping in January, now sit virtually empty, as supplies have been rapidly drained for irrigation.
This spring was the driest in England in 132 years, according to experts at the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, with no immediate end in sight.
What began as a so-called "flash drought" in the North West of England has now evolved into something much more serious, with Yorkshire, the East Midlands and central and southern parts of the country all declaring themselves as being officially in a state of water shortage. The West Midlands was added to the list in July.
Extreme weather is now creating extreme outcomes for farmers - with the challenges varying dramatically from farm to farm.
For the county's beef, sheep and dairy farmers, that means dwindling stocks of hay and silage to feed their animals, with the added costs attached to having to bring in extra feed chipping away at already thin margins.
For arable growers, unable to plant their usual winter crops in powder dry fields, a gamble awaits for when the rain finally does arrive.
