Harvests 'lower than expected'
Farmers in the West Midlands have said harvests have failed to meet the expectations of just a month ago.
Staffordshire farmer Robert Lockhart, from the National Farmers' Union (NFU), said good weather in recent months meant many famers were predicting bumper yields on crops from barley to wheat.
He said, while considerably better than those of 2013, harvests would not meet most farmers' expectations.
Mr Lockhart said the EU was banning many of the pesticides, herbicides and fungicides traditionally used to control disease, which might limit the size of future harvests.
31 Jul 2014
- From the section Stoke & Staffordshire