11/08/2026
This is the reality of farming in 2026.
This is one of our rented fields in South Oxfordshire.
It was ploughed, cultivated twice and then drilled using a combination drill — a power harrow with a slot drill on the back — to create as fine and even a seedbed as possible. Once drilled, the field was flat rolled.
The grass seed was drilled at 18kg per acre.
That higher seed rate was deliberate. We effectively overdrilled the field to try and drought-protect the seedbed, knowing that some of the seed would inevitably fail, be eaten or simply never establish.
The hope was that enough viable grass seed would remain in the ground so that, when moisture eventually returned, there would still be seed there ready to germinate and establish into the autumn.
We had rain in April.
Since then, through May, June, July and now into early August, we’ve had effectively no meaningful rainfall here.
In a typical year, between March and early August, we would expect somewhere around 250mm of rainfall.
This year, we’ve had around 100mm, with the useful rain coming before this prolonged dry spell.
And this is where we’ve ended up.
There are now thousands of pounds worth of grass seed in this field, on top of thousands upon thousands of pounds in contracting costs, machinery and diesel, all simply trying to establish a crop that will eventually produce horse hay.
And the work isn’t finished.
The field will now need topping multiple times through the summer. Later in the summer it will need spraying, it will be harrowed multiple times and then overseeded again in an attempt to establish the pasture we originally set out to create.
More seed. More diesel. More machinery. More time. More cost.
You can prepare the ground properly.
You can create the right seedbed.
You can use a heavier seed rate.
You can drill it correctly and roll it.
But ultimately, you still need rain.
And just to be clear, this isn’t me having a moan.
This is me trying to show, on video, the reality of the situation that myself and many other contractors and farmers have found ourselves in this year.
So when you see people in Facebook comment sections saying:
“There’s so much grass around this year.”
or
“There’ll be loads of hay, so hay will be cheap this year.”
You can hopefully see for yourself that it really isn’t that simple — and in some cases, they’re quite frankly talking out of their backside.
There are areas of the country, particularly parts of Devon, Cornwall and further north, that have been fortunate enough to see more rainfall and consequently better grass yields.
But across large parts of central and southern England, conditions have been desperately dry.
This field is just one example of what that actually looks like on the ground.
Not a complaint. Not a sob story.
Just the reality of farming when the rain doesn’t come.
Interested to hear what others are seeing around the country — good or bad.
