'I can't bear looking at it' - Yorkshire farmer on the constant pain brought on by constant rain

“My wife Caroline said that it is the wettest she’s known it and I’ve never known it be so wet for so long and having started so early.

That earliness in inclemency of the weather combined with an almost constant rain pattern has led to much consternation among arable farmers, and for many a triple whammy has come with the failure of oilseed rape due to flea beetle.

John says that although he is wholeheartedly behind min-till for cultivation work that desperate times call for desperate measures.

“Normally, at this time, we would have 450 acres of wheat and then 160 plus acres of oilseed rape, 130-plus acres of beans and 100 acres of winter barley.

“We got most sown of what we were going to sow, bar a few headlands, but then what we sowed got a massive amount of rain immediately afterwards so the fields are very patchy.

“Some look alright, but some look pretty moderate and we had real troubles with rape due to flea beetle and had to re-drill and three-quarters of that has survived but is currently small and struggling with the wet. If I get the opportunity in the coming weeks I might sow again with some spring oats.

“Fortunately the barley looks fine as we drilled that quite early having ploughed it all, but unfortunately the land where we min-tilled and tried to be more regenerative looks the worst.

“We do much more min-till than we do ploughing these days as we generally see better improvement more quickly and the results are normally good if not better, but we are definitely looking at polishing the plough up to establish a crop that we can get in the ground quickly.

Where John and many other arable farmers are being stymied is in the time it is taking for their fields to be back in shape in order to either go back into cultivation now or even get on to the crops they have in the ground.

“Our current land condition is still damp,” says John. “Most of the lakes we’ve had throughout winter have now gone, but you can still see where they were, and the crops, that we’ve hardly been able to get on to at all, generally look thin and reluctant to get growing. We are praying for a spell of sunshine and a bit of warmth.

John farms on predominantly loamy clay and went with winter wheat varieties Graham, Champion, Parkin and Dawsum for this year, as well as Tardis for his winter barley and Acacia rape, but whatever the variety he knows only too well that trying to get out of the ground, grow and come up with a decent yield is going to be difficult.

He’s getting closer, like many in his position, to dropping oilseed rape altogether, but he isn’t yet convinced about such as growing crops of wild bird mix that the new SFI schemes have been pushing farmers towards.

“I think we’re at a bit of a crossroads with the crop. If you can get it growing it’s fine and it’s a great break crop but it’s getting harder and harder to get it under way in autumn.

“I’ve joined the SFI but I haven’t gone for the crops that would replace rape as yet. I could grow something as a bird cover, which would be fine, but the difficulty I find, even in our current HLS scheme, is getting these various crops to grow.

“In theory the payments are great and it looks easy but I’m slightly dubious about going into things that are actually difficult to grow. Say we had an inspection and the crop isn’t there, through no fault of our own, are you going to get in trouble for it not being there, and you’re committed for three years. It was only 18 months ago that rape was worth £900 per tonne, so I’m going to stick with it on a smaller scale.

It’s not all doom and gloom at Dowthorpe though. John has pigs on a bed and breakfast arrangement with North Frodingham farmer Ashley Foster, which has been working well for a number of years; and a turkey enterprise that may double this year as a local producer has retired and John’s daughter Rosie and her husband Henry are now farming alongside him.

“Rosie and Henry have been back here two years and are currently studying for their HND in agriculture at Bishop Burton College in order that they learn more about farming, can plan with me for the future and that they qualify for succession on our tenancy. They have two little boys, Arthur and Charlie.

John is keen on anything that will help Dowthorpe and the future of farming in general, although he is concerned that farmers are forever being talked to as though they know nothing about the soil, the environment and wildlife.

“I feel as a farmer that we’re rather talked down to by DEFRA, that they always know better and how to run farms better than we do, but farmers are very inventive and if there are easier and better ways to do things farmers are going to do them.

“We are certainly not stuck in the mud, although we might be because of the rain at the moment.

“Regenerative farming might seem a new concept but it has been going on throughout the ages. If we didn’t look after the land and soil properly we would not be able to grow crops at all.

“I’ve always taken the view that if you have difficult areas you should take them out of production and put them into something useful for wildlife.

John is also an East Riding Ward Councillor for the Mid-Holderness ward that includes several large villages of Skirlaugh, Wawne and Aldbrough within his area.

“It a rural area that covers the outskirts of Hull and Beverley to the East Coast. I chair and sit on various committees. I was deputy leader for a year but it wasn’t really my bag as I’m not really politically minded. I’m a Conservative who is quite central rather than left or right.

“At the moment it looks pretty bleak for the Conservatives. What’s gone on in Westminster doesn’t help any of us out in the shires, but I think most residents in the East Riding think the council has been reasonably well run since I started in 1996.

“I think people are fed up with those at a higher level and the combination of Covid, the wars that are going on, and the cost of living crisis people feel they want a change.

“The change I’d like is a bit of sunshine.