Weather 'close to being a disaster' for farmers

Mr Meek, who farms at Eland Hall in Ponteland, said: "We have not turned a wheel for a week and the ground conditions are now so wet I don't know how we are going to travel these fields.

"Oilseed rape should have been drilled by now for next year but we have written off any possibility of doing that because there is not enough time left. That goes for everyone in this area.

"The financial implications of all of this are quite dramatic because we have got falling cereal prices, rising costs for fuel and fertilisers and soaring drying costs. I have about £10,000 worth of seed on the farm, which we have to pay for, but can't get it into the ground.

"That means that next year we will have an awfully smaller harvest to sell. The heavy rain has meant a real double whammy for farmers and we now need six or seven weeks of exceptionally good weather to get the wheat harvested, and the wheat and barley drilled.

"If we don't get that we are in a real mess. It is very close to being a disaster and farmers are very depressed at the moment."

Frank Dakin, 47, has 1,700 acres of cereals and oilseed rape at Duddo Farm near Berwick. Yesterday he said: "This heavy rain could not have come at a worse time of year. We are going to have very serious problems with our wheat and potatoes because it is going to be very difficult to get into the fields and lift them.

"We have had to put dual wheels on our combines to stop them sinking into the ground and getting stuck, but we have fields where we will not be physically able to harvest. About 10% of the wheat has been harvested but what proportion of the remaining 90% we will get I just don't know.

"This is the worst harvest I have known in my 47 years and the consequences are very dramatic for the farming industry and the wider rural economy."