Welsh farmers are adapting to more unpredictable weather, but agricultural policies that apply the same requirements to every farm risk undermining their efforts, according to the Climate Adaptation in Agriculture Study commissioned by the Welsh government and published on 20 October, Farmers Weekly reports. The study calls for grants, regulations and advisory services that reflect the conditions on individual farms.
The research, carried out by Mentera, involved 63 farmers and eight industry representatives. They described unpredictable weather disrupting grazing, fieldwork and forage production and driving up costs. "In the last five years, you could go from exceptionally wet, and the ironic thing is once it stops raining, it'll be a drought," one farmer said.
Farmers reported changing grazing systems, investing in livestock housing, planting hedgerows for shelter and considering extra water storage against drought, driven by the need to stay productive and profitable as well as by the climate. Adaptation can be costly: one participant spent £36,000 on a manure-storage building that stood empty for much of the year.
Participants questioned whether the Sustainable Farming Scheme (SFS) would give long-term financial security and balance environmental aims with food production. The prescribed seed mixtures of the Growing for the Environment scheme were criticised, with farmers arguing that the right multispecies leys depend on soil, location and farming system. "Must avoid trying to farm by spreadsheet!" one industry representative said. The report recommends support that lets farmers choose suitable measures, simpler grant applications and rules that allow for changing weather windows; its findings could inform the SFS Optional and Collaborative Layers.
Fraser McAuley, senior policy adviser at CLA Cymru, said the findings reflected members' concerns about inflexible schemes and called for multi-annual funding and schemes that reward practical outcomes rather than rigid prescriptions. The Welsh government said it will carefully consider the findings in developing the SFS and its grants, including how they can be more flexible for different farm businesses.
Photo: Roger Kidd / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Source: Farmers Weekly
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