Farmer warns UK drought is 'worst I have ever known' as he makes heartbreaking decision

Farmer warns UK drought is 'worst I have ever known' as he makes heartbreaking decision EXCLUSIVE: Chris Wray says he expects to earn just £10,000 from growing crops this year, as thousands of farmers are left reeling by the long nationwide drought and soaring costs Proud Chris Wray is a fifth generation farmer who has worked his land through tough times and good. However, this summer's punishingly long drought has been the final straw in what he calls a “perfect storm” of challenges. Arable farmer Chris, 46, has decided not to plant any crops on a third of his land - some 200 acres - this autumn because it would mean making a loss on it. While it might make sense financially, it is big step emotionally as for Chris - along with most others like him - farming is a way of life rather than a job. Speaking to the Mirror while surveying the bone dry fields on his Lincolnshire farm, he said: “I can’t run the risk of losing money - I can’t justify that. I can’t afford to anymore. “And there a lot of people thinking like that now. Farmers are a real, ‘head down, let’s do what we’ve always done, and everything will come right’. That is their stalwart logic.” Were large numbers of other farmers to scale back planting this autumn, it would run the risk of shortages of UK-grown crops, forcing the UK to import more. Drought has gripped last swathes of the country, with the Met Office confirming July as the driest on record for England and Wales. It meant millions of households were weeks into lengthy hosepipe bans. And there is no end in sight, with the forecasted return of hot weather in the south this week. The brutal conditions had a huge impact on farmers, with some facing the worst harvest on record as heatwaves and drought batter the countryside. New analysis by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) suggested the UK’s exceptionally dry and hot spring and summer could have knocked as much as 2.5million tonnes off the country’s cereals and oilseed harvest compared with earlier forecasts, costing arable farmers as much as £390m in lost revenue. Vegetable producers - including potato farmers - were also left reeling, leading to warnings of possible shortages and price hikes for shoppers. It's been two months since rain had fallen on Chris’s land, 600 across of his own, plus another on a neighbouring farm near Donington, Lincs. Gaping cracks have appeared in his fields wide enough to put your hand down. In others, the crop was not grown at all. Chris said he was in a better position than many because he owned the land, unlike tenant farmers. His main crop is wheat and, when those fields were left, due to rotation, an alternative “break” crop, such as millet (used for bird feed) or linseed. It is this crop which married Chris said wasn't viable to grow, and which he decided not to plant come autumn. Along with the weather, soil conditions were a big factor in a crop’s success. Chris got the best wheat harvest this year from heavy, clay land but "even then, it’s been average at best". The yield on poorer, stony ground, has been about half compared with last year, and “that won’t have made any money at all”, he added. The parched conditions also meant Chris was able to complete this year’s harvest in just a fortnight - compared with three to four weeks normally - and a month early. While his harvest was down between 20% and half, the price he gets for the wheat is impacted by global forces, including Russia’s war in Ukraine. After paying insurance and other overheads, Chris said he would probably make about £10,000 this year - well below the national living wage. “The bottom line is, I’m not making money out of farming,” said Chris, who was forced to rent a chunk of his land for a solar farm to make ends meet. “It is the worst I have ever known it at the minute,” he said, adding life was made harder by competing with farmers in other countries who benefit from state subsidies and lower environmental standards. “We’ve been pushed into this perfect storm,” Chris says of the current challenge. “Covid pushed up the price of machinery - it’s horrendously expensive - there’s a tax on fertiliser next year, which makes that really expensive, and the price we’re selling at is the same as it was 20 years ago. Then you have this weather on top - and it’s happened twice.” Provisional estimates produced by the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board indicated wheat, spring barley and oat yields will all be down, with the estimated wheat yield well below the 10-year average. With 54% of the wheat crop harvested, if these average levels hold, then it said the UK cereal and oilseeds harvest would be 19.5million tonnes, surpassing 2020 as the worst harvest on record since detailed records began in 1984. Even if yields were revised up, the ECIU warned 2026 is now likely to be one of the five worst harvests since 1984, which would mean that four out of five of the worst harvests on record had occurred this decade after periods of extreme weather made worse by climate change. Tom Lancaster, land, food and farming analyst at the ECIU, said: “At the start of spring farmers were hopeful of a better year, but the dry April and July and record-breaking heat have left farmers facing down the barrel of a third awful harvest in a row. Farming is now the sector most exposed to climate change and the risks and damage that it brings. “From the wettest winter on record in 2024, to the hottest summer in 2025 and now unprecedented heat and drought this year, we are in danger of UK farming entering a climate doom loop, as repeated impacts undermine the capacity of farmers to drill next year’s crop. "Without reducing emissions to net zero, to bring the climate back into balance, conditions will continue to deteriorate. It is now a clear priority for the future of UK food production, farming and the countryside that sustains it. Our green and pleasant land is transforming into a parched and increasingly unproductive one.” Martin Lines, a farmer from Cambridgeshire said: “Harvest this year has been a real kick in the teeth. After two terrible harvests in a row, the crops this year were looking good and full of potential coming out of spring, only for months of drought and heatwaves to destroy any prospect of a decent harvest. “I’ve never known it this dry and hot on our farm. Even farmers I know who were sceptical of climate change are now saying they’re really worried about the future of their businesses and production, it’s just been completely brutal for our industry. “And with high input costs because of the Iran war, planning crops for next year is a total nightmare. The nature-friendly practices we’ve deployed on the farm have helped our soils hold on to water for longer, but there’s only so much you can do to adapt to these sorts of extremes.”