The British countryside is going through its worst moment, spring has been dry and the summer, as you have seen, has been too hot. This has caused the hay not to come out… And producers are already talking about a drop that exceeds 60%. And yes, hay is important, it is the basis of the entire livestock industry, so if hay fails, everything fails, from farmers, breeders… entire farms and it could even affect consumers. Prices skyrocket, reserves are not enough and the country begins to depend more and more on imports… A real national problem.
A hot summer
That is what the official data estimates, 2025 has been the hottest summer recorded in the United Kingdom, and it came right after the driest and sunniest spring in its history. The countryside has not been able to recover and logically, the grass does not grow.
Producers like Olly Morris assure that the countryside is 60% below normal. It is not just that hay is missing, it is that those who can get it have to pay much more. And that has caused a chain of problems.
The domino effect on prices
And yes, even if it seems that this only matters to the countryside, everything makes food more expensive. Without countryside there is no meat, without meat there is no food. And that is when the UK has had to opt for imports, pay more as a nation and have to pay more as a consumer, of course.
Richard Ellis, professor at the University of Reading, believes that the capacity to produce grass in the United Kingdom has been in decline for eighty years. It is not a bad season, it is that they need to renew, and even more so with climate change looming.
Climate change is already here
Years ago we thought that climate change would never come, but the way we are treating our planet has made it arrive much earlier, and what used to happen once every several years, now is the norm. Longer droughts, unbearable heat waves, less rain or on the contrary floods.. The countryside is no longer what it was and farmers notice it.
Are there solutions?
Right now, the only solution being considered is to import hay from abroad, with everything that implies, but in the long term, experts insist that the only real way out is to reduce emissions and accelerate the transition to clean energy.
That and new farming techniques that have more efficient water management. The agricultural sector cannot be so vulnerable to climate change. It is not just about surviving an extreme summer, but about ensuring that production does not collapse every time temperatures rise.
A wake-up call
It may seem that the UK is far away, but it is a warning of what could happen to the rest of the planet if it does not act accordingly. Climate change is something very serious and we need to be able to tackle it no matter what. If not, we will have to start getting used to higher prices, more pressure on those who live off the land and on us, who also consume what comes from it!
It is time to take action and the sooner, the better for everyone. If not, we will have to say goodbye to our fields and imports will be the new normal.