Island farmers are having to find ways to store more water on their land as a result of climate change.
Phil Le Maistre, of Master Farms in Grouville, said that growers were either having to build new reservoirs or dig out existing ones. The work needs to be done now to capture winter rainfall.
Despite last winter being the third wettest on record, a dry spring followed by a very dry summer have seriously affected crop yields. The industry is bracing itself for another hot season next year.
Climate models used by the UK Met Office suggest that 2027 could be even dryer, with a heatwave expected three to five months after the El Niño peaks at the end of this year.
El Niño is a natural climate pattern that impacts large parts of the world, often bringing higher temperatures, droughts and floods. It is caused when the normally cool, dry east Pacific becomes warmer and wetter, shifting rainfall patterns and causing severe weather patterns around the world. The last one was in 2023-24.
This summer was the first time in 40 years that the Le Maistre family has had to take winter feed out to its heifers grazing in fields.
“It was such a long sustained dry spell,” he explained, adding that he remembered many reservoirs being dug on farms in 1976. The summer that year was one of the hottest and driest in British history, with a severe drought and heatwave lasting from June until late August.
Mr Le Maistre added that these reservoirs had been used consistently for around ten years, with many falling out of use after that.
“I have seen two or three people recently digging out existing reservoirs. Everyone needs extra capacity.
“We have six or seven spread across different parts of the Island. We had one that was filled up with water from a bore hole, but it supplied the farm accommodation as well. Now that we have to irrigate the fields more often, we have had to put the accommodation on mains water.”
Master Farms have also had to buy a new irrigation reel, which Mr Le Maistre explained was like a giant hose that could be stretched across a field before being wound back in slowly.
Speaking to the BBC in September, Assistant Minister for Environment, Agriculture and Fisheries Kirsten Morel said that the government was keen to “sit down with the farming industry and understand what impacts the drought has had”.
He added that he could look at how the Rural Support Scheme might be used to alleviate the challenges.
Farmers in England hoping to build reservoirs with support from a promised £15m government grant fear delays to the scheme could leave them unable to capture winter water supplies, according to Farmers Weekly.
“After a summer drought that hit crop yields and livestock water availability, the NFU says growers cannot afford a repeat,” it reported.
“Recent rainfall has been welcome, but farmers stress it will only make a difference if they have the capacity to store it, with concerns already growing over water availability next year.”
This week the Environment Agency warned that UK farmers could face outright bans on spray irrigation next year if winter rainfall remained well below average.
A new government assessment, published this month, raised concerns that agricultural reservoirs might fail to refill before the spring, leaving growers facing serious water shortages.
With 82% of the UK still in drought, the Environment Agency estimates that at least 120% of average rainfall will be needed over the next six months for the country to emerge from drought by spring.
