When UK came out of winter 2021, soils were blessed with plenty of precipitation. This was more fortunate than anybody anticipated at the time but in the end, it prevented 2022 from surpassing the historical disastrous drought year of 1976 only by inches. What happened and what did we learn?
The hot and dry weather that stroke Europe this summer affected crop production in most other countries. Perhaps, forage production in UK and Ireland were more fiercely stroke than others because these islands are so used to frequent showers that very few are equipped with irrigation systems for pastures. In consequence, several cuts missed out completely leaving farmers with no other choice but to start feeding from their winter rations.
Read more about what lessons the drought taught us in the European Seeds' Insiders article