Countryfile presenter Adam Henson has admitted "it isn't good" as he opened up about the difficulties caused by high temperatures and a lack of rainfall at his farm. The hot, dry weather has sparked an earlier harvest at the Cotswold Farm Park, near Cheltenham, which he inherited from his father Joe Henson in 1999.
Drought forces early harvest
It has been close to two months since the area saw any meaningful rainfall, and Adam took fans on a virtual tour of the site via the Cotswold Farm Park YouTube channel. He said: "It's been absolutely bone dry for over a month. And our lambs here are going to need to be fed hard food and we're going to have to get some silage because you can see the grass has just turned brown."
He added: "There's nothing much for them to eat. We've got lots of livestock on the farm. Many of you will come to the Cotswold Farm Park to see our collection of rare farm animals, but we've also got a large arable concern where we're growing crops."
Yields down on thin stony soil
The venue features over 50 flocks and herds of rare-breed animals and is a popular attraction, but it is also a working farm. Adam said: "The weather is absolutely baking hot as it is for many people across the UK. And we've started our harvest probably 2 or 3 weeks earlier than normal. Last year was early because of the drought."
"This year seems to be even earlier. We usually wouldn't start the wheat until August and unfortunately because of all the hot weather and us being on quite thin stony soil, the yields aren't very good."
Fire risk and wider concerns
With temperatures regularly pushing past 30C, Adam highlighted the fire risk. He said: "Goodness me, look at the dust. It shows how dry it is. It's quite a fire risk as well. We have to be quite careful with overheating engines and any sparks coming off anything."
He added: "Thankfully so far on this farm in particular, we've been OK. But I know others in the region have had some fires, which is pretty scary when it's hot."
Adam also recently highlighted a serious concern in the industry after new figures revealed a rising number of people dying at work. Writing in BBC Countryfile magazine, he said: "There's so much bad news around that it's easy to be numbed by the torrent of negative stories in the media. But occasionally something hits the headlines that stops me in my tracks – and that's what happened when the latest figures for deaths in the workplace were released."
