Norfolk's economy hit by low rainfall and record heat
Some of Norfolk's farmers are out-sourcing crops abroad, while local brewers may have to put beer prices up soon
Some of Norfolk's farmers are out-sourcing crops abroad, while local brewers may have to put beer prices up soon.
It's all because Norfolk experienced one of it's hottest and driest summers on record this year, according to the Met Office and still remains in drought as we go into the autumn.
So far this year, parts of West Norfolk have only got 250mm of rainfall, this being well below the 330mm that our county would normally get by the start of October.
While, East Anglia had only 5.4mm of rain in July, (this being the lowest amount since records began back in 1836).
"If soft fruit growers don't get any water, they don't get a crop, it's as simple as that"
This has all meant that farmers across our county are having to make a whole host of difficult decisions.
Ones that affect all of us, considering that agriculture along with the food and drink industries make up close to a quarter of our local economy.
Nick Deane is a farmer in Hoveton, in the Norfolk Broads.
He told us that the vast majority of farmers are now debating whether to plant some of their crops at all, because fields are rock-solid. While an extreme few are sourcing their crops- to other countries.
He told us that water security concerns are having a range of consequences, especially for fruit and livestock farmers:
"There is a business local to here that is already taking some of it's crops, and producing them in Spain- that is the reality of it. We are going to out-source crops from this country and grow them somewhere else where regulation is less, they don't think the risk is as much or there is cheaper costs."
"Livestock farmers are essentially running out of the grass they should be feeding their cattle on, at this time of the year. What this means is they are now going to use winter feed stocks to feed their cattle now, so we are getting ahead of ourselves and consequences could come later down the line".
"If soft fruit growers don't get any water, they don't get a crop, it's as simple as that. A lot of them are under protected housing, ironically to keep rain off them for quality purposes, so they don't get mould on them. They rely on drip irrigation along the bottom, and if their licenses are curtailed at all they would be losing crop in a few days."
"We are very dependent on the rain coming"
Our local breweries, are warning that the price of beer may have to rise soon- as lower barely yields caused by heat stress mean production costs are likely to climb as well.
David Holliday is the owner of Moon Gazer Ale in Hindringham, near Fakenham.
Many companies like his can't carry on without secure access to water:
"For every pint of beer we use, it takes about 5 pints of water to make that, and that's if you are efficient some will be at about 8 pints. You can see that farmers and growers are going to have to change their practices in how they work, and what they grow- which is a concern for us".
"The Barley crop was very dry, it didn't get the water that it needed- so that is going to affect the malt quality next year. The Hops are in all the fields and they are showing drought stress now. Such is the size of all these fields, it's difficult for these plants to be irrigated in anything other than a natural way, so we are very dependent on the rain coming and the hops filling out, to be harvested".
What's next?
There's more to come on our Troubled Waters investigation on Friday- you can read more here.