A farming advisor to Reform UK – which would expand oil and gas drilling and scrap net zero targets – has spoken of the “soul-destroying” impact of extreme weather on his own crops.
As the UK faces its fifth heatwave in four months, farmers have been left reeling from the impact of climate shocks, with stunted vegetables, poor grass growth and lower yields damaging both profit margins and morale.
On 25 July, days before a drought was declared for over half of England and Wales, Staffordshire arable farmer and Reform advisor Clive Bailye gave voice to the predicament facing thousands of farmers across the UK.
“I’ve never seen such good-looking crops yield so badly in my entire farming career,” wrote Bailye in an X post viewed nearly 50,000 times, pointing to an “utter disaster of a harvest”.
“Utterly soul-destroying for everybody involved,” he said, adding that it “gets harder to maintain a pride in your work when it gets destroyed by weather, seemingly every year now.” He concluded by asking: “Is there actually any point planting crops this autumn? I’m seriously beginning to wonder.”
