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Farming Today: Farming Today This Week

Farming Today This Week

07/05/2011

BBC Radio 4 - Farming Today, Farming Today This Week

How the hot dry April temperatures have damaged crops and affected farm animals.

Farmers say record temperatures through April have damaged crops while gorse fires have ravaged large areas. Charlotte Smith learns the impact of the unseasonable weather on farms.

While sunworshippers have enjoyed the warmest April on record the countryside has been suffering. Fires have ravaged forests and gorseland across the UK, spreading quickly in the dry conditions and causing damage that will take decades to recover. Meanwhile farmers are seeing crops wilting and river levels dropping due to the lack of rainfall and high temperatures.

Charlotte Smith visits Ragley Home Farms in Warwickshire to see for herself the damage already done to wheat stocks which will see yields drop. Having been stopped from abstracting water from the river they're having to make careful decisions about how to use the limited water they have and which crops to use it on. Farm Manager John Parker says rainfall over the next few days will be crucial.

Presented by Charlotte Smith. Produced by Anne-Marie Bullock.

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