Land Drainage in a Dry Time

Land Drainage in a Dry Time

We have experienced one of the driest springs on record in the early part of the year.  This has then been followed by an indifferent summertime with below average temperatures and general lack of sunshine.  The autumn here in the East of England has then been incredibly dry again with a prolonged ‘Indian summer’ with record temperatures in early October and weeks without rain again.

We need over 250mm of rainfall between now and Christmas to bring us back up to our average rainfall scenario which clearly is not going to happen!

The weather over the past agricultural year has produced some interesting scenarios for our farming clients with many reporting record wheat and rape yields whilst others have had some of the worst recorded yields they have ever experienced.  Clearly rainfall (or the lack of it) has been instrumental in terms of offering an element of explanation as to what’s going on.  However, whilst regular rainfall remains an essential ingredient to crop production, there has been an interesting realisation that has taken place amongst many farmers over the course of the last year.

This realisation has been the importance of soil and more specifically having the correct soil structure to establish and grow crops in throughout the season.  Poor soil structures have struggled this year.  2010’s wet autumn meant that crops established poorly with root structures remaining near the surface.  This caused huge problems when the drought came as the plants were not able to draw moisture out from the ground at depth owing to these shallow root structures.  Essential nutrients required by the plant from the soil were not available because the poor soil structures failed to allow them to move through the capillaries within the soil.

Land Drainage has been scientifically proven over many studies to improve soil structures and provide more optimal conditions for the growing plant – even in a dry time.  This is because it promotes the creation of these capillaries within the soil which allow the crop roots to grow deep into the ground and therefore helps the crop to flourish - assisting in producing the big yields preciously mentioned.

This perhaps goes some way towards explain why so many farmers have still been carrying out land drainage works this year – in spite of the drought.  One or two people have decided to wait until a wet time comes again before doing some more work but for the most part, the positive results that well drained fields exhibit are there for all to see – especially this year.