THE extended spells of dry weather have left farmers battling to save their harvest as large patches of the Island’s agricultural land have been left scorched by the high heat.
Just 20.5mm of rainfall fell in July, with a number of local farmers stating that the extra work required to support their crops has been “absolutely exhausting”.
Christine Hellio, who alongside her husband Didier runs Manor Farm which produces a significant proportion of Jersey’s locally grown vegetables, said that additional time and money have been spent this year to ensure their crops are irrigated.
“We have been irrigating for probably over four months now… everything that we grow has to be irrigated. It’s continuous,” she said.
“We do have rain guns and rain wheels but we still need to get the irrigation pipes to the field. It’s still a manual job getting all of the pipes to the field and then it takes a lot of diesel to run these pumps to irrigate.”
Mrs Hellio added that despite the time and money required to keep the farm running, she feels she is unable to increase her prices as buyers could opt to buy from non-local sources.
“Local food is very important,” she said. “I would hate to think that we would have Christmas without a [local] Brussels sprout, and I’m determined that my sprouts are going to grow and that they are going to have water.
“Literally everything we grow needs to be irrigated. The parsnips are going to be a struggle to get growing. It has been exhausting, absolutely exhausting.
“But we’re farmers – we’re not going to say ‘well, we can’t do it’. We have to try and produce food.”
Mrs Hellio added that she recently spent £40,000 on a new irrigation pump to help with the crisis, which she said was a “great investment” being used daily.
Meanwhile, Philip Le Maistre, senior of Master Farms and chair of the Jersey Milk Marketing Board, said that cows currently have a lack of green grass to graze on, meaning they have had to be bottle-fed.
“All of the grass now has pretty much dried up… everyone is now using silage and things that they made for next winter,” he said. “It’s all extra work and extra costs, because really there’s nothing better than just putting cows out to the field to graze all the nice grass off.”
Dougie Richardson, president of the Jersey Farmers Union, said that the extra costs associated with irrigation had caused major issues for the industry.
Significantly, he said that yields are down compared to other years, which he said was a “nationwide” issue.
He said: “Anyone producing seed crops, the yields will be down. We’re seeing it a lot in the potato industry too. Food can become sparse very quickly, so it definitely is a concern.
“There is sufficient irrigation, and the industry has done very well. I think there will be a few farmers doing a raindance when the rain finally comes.”
As well as creating difficulties for farming, there are also concerns that extended periods of dry weather will impact that Island’s water supplies.
Mark Bowden, head of water resilience and emergency planning at Jersey Water, said that reservoir levels are “dropping” as Jersey sees high water usage and “no significant rain forecast”.
He said: “Reservoirs are currently 76.5% full, which is lower than the ten-year average of 81.3% and has fallen 13.7% since the start of July.
“Unlike half of England, which is now officially in drought, we don’t need water restrictions just yet, but could be heading that way. We have the desalination plant on standby and are closely monitoring the situation while also planning ahead for autumn when reservoir levels usually fall to their lowest.”
