Harvests are arriving up to two weeks early because drought and hot weather have accelerated crop growth and maturation. Suppliers are harvesting wheat, oilseed rape, oats and malting barley a fortnight ahead and preparing to stock apples and berries earlier in summer. Lack of rainfall and high temperatures have pushed plants to complete growth stages and produce seed sooner, increasing plant stress. Regenerative practices—cover crops, integrating livestock and reduced soil disturbance—have improved soil organic matter and water-holding capacity on some farms. Each 1% rise in soil organic matter provides about 168,000 litres extra water per hectare, aiding drought resilience, while water-intensive vegetables such as carrots, potatoes and brassicas face poor prospects.
The drought conditions meant that the plants were stressed, and in reaction to this they raced through their growth stages to produce their seed before they senesce, hence the earlier harvest. His team had managed to mitigate some of the worst drought effects as they had been practising regenerative farming, he said, which meant the soil had been kept in better condition and held water for longer.
As we are increasing the organic matter content of our soils through our farming practices (cover crops, integrating livestock, minimising disturbance, etc), we are seeing that our soils have a higher water-holding capacity, which helps our resilience to drought extremes. An increase in 1% soil organic matter leads to an increase of 168,000 litres extra water holding per hectare available to the crops.
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