The wettest winter in over 130 years is damaging farmers all other the country.  The last 5 months of rain have not been without consequence, as many farmers have found their crops damaged, and land flooded.  The rain will have serious impacts on the rest of this year.

The almost constant rain from October has prevented the planting of winter crops due to the ground being too wet.   While some farmers were able to drill some winter crops before the rain set in, flooding and ground saturation has killed off many of these.

As a result of the rain starting so early, fields that would have been planted with winter crops were then left for planting of spring crops.  However, the wet weather has continued into the spring, leading to fields still being flooded or saturated.  Now the ground is drying out, the late drilling will lead to a late harvest, which will cause yields to be worse than hoped for.  A local arable farmer mused about the weather: "There's an old saying that a pinch of dust in March is worth a King's ransom, but there was not much sign of it this March.  This means that even the spring barley was drilled very late."

Another effect of this year's exceptional rain fall is the impact it has had on winter root vegetables such as onions and potatoes.  The ground saturation meant that tractors and heavy vehicles have not been able to harvest the vegetables.  While this has not impacted Dorset very much, there are some local farmers it has affected.  However, this will cause the a rise in price of potatoes, onions and other winter vegetables. While we’re all hoping for some warm, sunny weather, with climate change, extreme weather events such as prolonged periods of rain are seemingly becoming more frequent.