Adam Henson

Wild weather has lain waste to this year's crops and it's here to stay

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It's the ultimate party ice-breaker and the national obsession. There's a reason why the Countryfile weather forecast attracts peak viewing figures every Sunday night on BBC One. But come rain or shine, how many weather-watchers think about the impact that the elements have on farms and farmers? Technology can make the work we do on the land faster, easier, less wasteful and more accurate, but like our farming ancestors down the centuries, we still depend on the weather going our way. Last winter was one of the wettest since records began in Victorian times, so for many of us it was the rainiest of our working lives. Not much changed when spring arrived, with the Met Office declaring it the wettest for 38 years and the sixth wettest since 1836.