While the country has been basking in unseasonably warm and sunny weather this spring, many farmers have been praying for rain as they watch their livelihoods wither in the dusty soils of the driest start to spring in England for almost 70 years. “Everything was normal in February, a bit chilly and miserable, and then it stopped raining,” Harry Metcalfe, a Cotswolds farmer, said after inspecting his stressed wheat crop. Since February 26 his farm has received 25.8mm of rainfall, compared to the 184mm it received in the same period last year. He suspects the few meagre ears of wheat coming through will make about £5,500 in gross profit at harvest time, down from a budgeted £30,000 when he planted them. That is before
