Latest news with #BearstoneFruitFarm
BBC News
6 days ago
- Climate
- BBC News
Continuing dry weather depletes Shropshire farm's supplies
A year of warm and dry weather has impacted farms, with one Shropshire farmer saying his straw stores are about half what they would normally Roberts said just by looking at his land you could see "just brown, there's no green at all"."I've got probably enough grass for my sheep, but if I was running any more sheep, then you'd have to feed them, you'd have to feed them with something," he Roberts, from Bearstone Fruit Farm near Market Drayton, said he had cut his flock of sheep down, "so I haven't got many". He explained that a decreased barley harvest meant he was able to produce less straw, leaving him with "very little".Normally at this time of year he would have filled three bays with straw, but he said currently it was likely he was "going to fill one-and-a-half or so. It's half the amount of straw." Mr Roberts said large dairy farms were nearby, pointing out "these guys have got hundreds of cows".He added: "They're having to feed their winter stocks, they're having to buy in silage and whatever to feed the cows because there's no grass, especially in this area."We seem to have missed all the thunderstorms and we've had absolutely no rain at all, all summer." Reflecting on the "more extreme" weather now, he said there used to be "little wet spells and dry spells, but it was all sort of mixed together... warm weather, wet weather"."Now, it's just runs of dry weather or deluges of rain coming and stuff and it makes farming very difficult." Follow BBC Shropshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
BBC News
22-05-2025
- Climate
- BBC News
Shropshire pick-your-own fruit farm's earliest season in 50 years
Recent weeks of hot weather have given one fruit farm their earliest season in more than 50 Fruit Farm, near Woore on the Shropshire-Staffordshire border, has even been able to open its pick-your-own strawberry fields two weeks earlier than to the Met Office, this year's spring is so far the driest in more than a century. "The last six weeks have been lovely, but we are starting to get short of water," fruit farmer John Roberts said. Founded in 1972, Bearstone Fruit Farm boasts more than seven acres of strawberries and grows raspberries, gooseberries, blackcurrants, tayberries and jostaberries - alongside various vegetables. But this is the first time Bearstone has opened its gates to visitors before the Whitsun bank 70, who owns the farm and has been working there since he was 16, said the crops were "10 to 14 days earlier" than usual, which he credited to the recent "glorious weather"."June, I think, was the last early season we had [previously]," he added. "It tends to average out, because we'll start early and we'll probably finish early," John noted that because Bearstone's strawberries are grown "traditionally" in the ground - not in a substrate or polytunnel - they are slightly more influenced by the whims of Mother Nature."We can't manipulate the season; it's just as nature intended, really." This spring is on track to be the driest in more than a century, according to the Met farmers have said that record sunshine and low rainfall are leaving their crops struggling to the sunshine bringing early fruit, Bearstone is hoping for some respite from the hot Roberts, John's son, said strawberries prefer "cool weather at night, with a bit of rain, and then some nice sun in the day." "If it's very hot, it shortens the [berry] season," Tim explained, adding that the farm is hoping for cooler temperatures to extend the lifespan of the said it has been a "strong start" to the season and that "the potential for fantastic crops is there."The sun means that the berries are "particularly sweet this year", Tim added. With visitors already pouring into Bearstone to take advantage of the early crop, John and his family are hoping to make the most of only being open for one day so far, John said they have "already had quite a pleasing number of people already come and pick [strawberries]".But some of the crops "really need a dose of rain now", he admitted."According to the forecast, we're getting some soon - fingers crossed." Follow BBC Shropshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
