Charlie Beaty: Still feeling the heat from the 2022 scorcher

It’s hard to believe that we’ve hit May (I’m wrapped in a thick jumper and woolly socks), but the Met Office has announced its predictions for another scorcher of a summer.

It’s placing the blame on El Nino, something I vaguely remember learning about in geography at school.

Now, I’m all for a great tan and an easy harvest, but summer 2022 left us with a few challenges to deal with.

See also: Opinion – Give the sheep a break

About the author

Charlie Beaty

Harper Adams University graduate Charlie has a keen interest in the livestock sector, being heavily involved in the beef and sheep enterprises at home, as well as the arable and contracting side of things. The 25-year-old is an active member of Warwickshire YFC and loves travelling the world.

Read more articles by Charlie Beaty

To the general public, the drought of last summer is a distant memory, but we’re definitely still feeling the effects – the main one being the drop in scanning percentage in our breeding ewes.

Maybe we should have held off tupping and lambed a bit later, but hindsight is a wonderful thing and back in September there was no sign of any relief in the form of precipitation.

Plus, it would have clashed with my trip to New Zealand for a good friend’s wedding.

Another factor has been the tight supply of winter forage.

We planted stubble turnips on which to outwinter the spring calvers alongside the ewes, but there were no record-breaking yields there (far from it!), and so we ended up bringing the cows in and feeding straw and rolled barley to some, to make the silage last until spring.

It’s reminded me how flexibility is key. No other industry has to manage with so many factors that are completely unpredictable and utterly out of our control in the way we do.

Routine is great, but the ability to alter it when required is a great strength – be it grazing or cropping rotations, stock numbers, groundwork practices, the list goes on.

Change is also fantastic, and I’m sad to say that my time as a Farmers Weekly young farmer columnist has come to an end.

It’s been a fantastic two-and-a-half years, and I’m so glad that I submitted an application back in November 2020. I’d recommend writing for FW to anyone. Writing, it seems, is a bit like farming – full of deadlines. Still, I work best when I’m under a bit of pressure.