Farmers enduring worst weather conditions in living memory, reveals Winterton Councillor Helen Rowson
IT'S a scene becoming all too familiar around northern Lincolnshire.
Fields flooded after heavy rainfall are now as much a part of the landscape as the farm land itself.
Spells of torrential rain throughout December has further contributed to the flooding with some farmers seeing their land consumed by vast amounts of water.
Last month in Lincolnshire 92 millilitres of rain fell before Boxing Day – 174 per cent higher than the average rainfall for the whole of December.
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And the Met Office predicts that rain and wind will continue in the early parts of January, before settling slightly towards the middle of the month.
Helen Rowson owns two farms in North Lincolnshire, Walcot Hall Farm and TJ Rowson and Daughter in Winterton, both of which have been badly affected by flooding.
She said: "It has been a horrendous year. The constant rain is a complete nightmare.
"It is blocking dykes and watercourses and the water cannot get out of the Ancholme Valley.
"I have been able to plant barely anything because I can't get onto the land.
"Nothing that we grow likes constantly wet conditions.
"These are the worst conditions I can ever remember, but we feel fortunate that we don't have flooded homes.
"The water in the fields is up to knee level in places. If it doesn't start to dry up soon then this year will become an even bigger worry.
"We are struggling to prepare for Spring and are desperate for some dry weather."
There are currently no flood risk warnings for rivers in the Ancholme Valley or Trent Valley areas, but the standing water has been caused largely by fields unable to drain the rainfall properly.
Anthony Ogg, owner of College Farm in Alkborough, believes the problem stems from poor maintenance of dykes and watercourses.
He said: "The rain has affected us a bit and the run-offs are getting full.
"We have had some standing water on bits of land, but the problem comes because a lot of the dykes haven't been cleared out for years.
"It causes the water to back up and in the long-run can cost a lot to repair.
"The flooding is going to affect a lot of crops because there has been too much water on them.
"Into next year I am worried that crops will be even worse and we need a lot of dry weather now."
Fred Kirkby, system group secretary for the North Lincolnshire branch of the National Farmers Union, said: "It (2012) has been a very difficult year. Farmers must do what they can and wait for the flood water to drain.
"It is important to spend time maintaining dykes and working on land drainage, but there is very little they can do to prepare for this sort of flooding."
Comments
by IT_MAN
Sunday, January 06 2013, 7:19PM
“Fully agree mondo51: As well as unemployed doing this work could they not make those on community service fit enough dig out the dykes but do it on peice work style where they have to do a certain length to equal one hours community service, slacking means their hours are increased.”
by mondo51
Sunday, January 06 2013, 12:41PM
“Drain land drag deep dragging/sub soiling works too, clean out the drains, drain problem solved get some of these unemployed lay abouts in the drains with shovels ifiwas fit enough and young enough i would be there my self”
by Stanwest1936
Sunday, January 06 2013, 12:06PM
“All the rain hasn't stopped the wind turbines growing though they are coming out of the ground like mushrooms all over North Lincolnshire.”
by thetruesaxon
Saturday, January 05 2013, 10:19PM
“It has been a horrendous year, said Lady Rowson; I will soon be down to my last Farm!”
by IT_MAN
Saturday, January 05 2013, 7:39PM
“I feel sorry for people affected by the flooding especially those with homes flooded, I also feel for the farmers as I lived on farms in my childhood days and worked on a farm when I started work in the early sixties, during that real bad winter we could not open the potato stores due to frosts so potato sorting was put off and we were sent to dig out dykes and cut hedges. In those days any area with standing water was drained with the old clay pipes in a deep trench, we don't see this anymore. I know it would not be a cure where there is heavy flooding but could help wet land drain quicker, the dykes also need digging out and maybe enlarging where possible. There is also the drains/rivers which I understand were dug by the Dutch years ago to drain the land which could do with dredging as they did years ago, the deeper and wider the river the more water it can take off the land, this type of work has been neglected and now some people object to it upsetting the river bed and the fish, years ago when dredging I used to watch as a kid and lots of the fish dunped on the river bank wriggled and fell back into the river, of course some died. Would you rather put up with that or suffer worse flooding of fields killing crops and increasing food prices, and see peoples homes flooded time after time making their properties worthless. I am not affected by the floods other than the food prices and increased insurance premiums but I would choose to dig dykes and dredge rivers to protect others.”
by MoragMcShin
Saturday, January 05 2013, 3:42PM
“Poor thing, she could always buy a smaller stately home.”
by Mozart
Saturday, January 05 2013, 12:43PM
“Farmers have always moaned about the weather since I was a kid - a long long time ago! They'll never be happy until they can control the weather over individual fields and even then they'll probably moan.”
by Hazzers
Saturday, January 05 2013, 11:03AM
“It looks like a paddy field, they should maybe grow rice.........”