News
Drought Management Guidance For Farmers
With the news just in that crops in England are already starting to fail because of drought conditions seen over the last few weeks, amid what is being described as the warmest start to spring on record, it’s more important now than ever for farmers around the country to prioritise sustainable water management.
It’s been 69 years since such a dry spring start was seen, the Guardian reports, with England experiencing the driest March since 1961 and April seeing just half the normal level of rainfall.
This has meant that farmers have had to begin crop irrigation earlier than planned, while reservoirs across the north-east and north-west are now either notably or exceptionally low.
As such, the Environment Agency (EA) is now calling on people to ration water use, while water companies ready themselves for drought this summer, with the government breathing down their necks to put further measures in place to avert water shortages. It’s possible that hosepipe bans will also be rolled out by the EA if significant rainfall isn’t seen.
This is a sentiment echoed by the National Farmers’ Union (NFU), noting that crops are already failing and May will need to see a lot of rain early on in the month in order to avoid yield penalties and even further losses.
Although grazing is not yet short, farmers have stressed the point that a decent amount of rain will be needed to ensure that animals make it through the summer months safely, with livestock yields now potentially at risk, as well.
The last time a similar situation was seen was back in 2022, when crops were badly hit, the south-east of England almost ran out of water and hosepipe bans were implemented across the country. Reservoir levels are now lower than they were at this time in 2022, with total storage capacity at 84 per cent, compared to 90 per cent at April-end three years ago.
David Exwood, NFU deputy president, was quoted by the news source as saying: ““The dry conditions and lack of any substantial rainfall has meant farmers in some parts of the country have started to irrigate crops much earlier than normal. The extreme weather patterns we have experienced over the past few years are impacting our ability to feed the nation.”
Drought management guidance
Farmers are advised to have a plan in place just in case they lose access to water, with extreme weather and temperature fluctuations now making such businesses vulnerable to water supply interruptions.
This is particularly important for any farmers that have livestock onsite, as lactating cows need between 60 to 100 litres of water each day, while lactating sows and gilts may need between 15 to 30 litres daily.
Advice from the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board if supply interruption does occur is to identify the source (public or private), find out if it’s a localised issue and let your water retailer/wholesaler know you have a problem.
From there, reduce non-essential water usage and prioritise use for the most essential activities. It’s also advisable to speak to neighbouring properties to see if water resources can be shared or traded.
Good practice
Beyond knowing what to do in a supply interruption emergency, farmers are advised to make sure that good practice is followed throughout the year to ensure that their sites are resilient and able to withstand drought-related pressure.
This includes following good irrigation principles, such as irrigating at night-time to prevent evaporation, using drip irrigation to deliver water directly to plant roots, watering deeply and less often, mulching and using technology to monitor soil moisture levels.
Focusing on water leak detection and repair can also prove beneficial, helping to reduce wastage and shore up supplies. The majority of leaks take place below ground or are so small that they’re barely noticeable, so countless litres could be trickling away unawares. A water audit of your site can identify vulnerable areas ripe for improvement in this regard.
Other strategies include rainwater harvesting, which can reduce reliance on mains water supplies quite significantly, as well as approaches such as greywater reuse.
And ensuring that you have all the relevant information at all times is a must so you can make timely decisions swiftly as drought and abstraction risks present themselves.
The D-Risk tool from Cranfield University can help you make more effective decisions about future irrigation and water management, using data analysis and interactive maps of the National River Flow Archive to reveal the state of individual catchments at any given time.
A simple water balance is then used to calculate potential soil moisture deficits for each year and the theoretical annual irrigation needs for each crop-soil combination to work out total water demand for each year. Irrigation demands can then be compared against annual licensed abstraction volume for farms.