Farmers and Landowners

Farmers and landowners are directly impacted by the issues that climate change presents. One of these issues is extreme weather; droughts, heatwaves and flooding, all of which have a negative impact socially, economically and environmentally. However, farmers and landowners can play a big part in tackling the climate emergency and mitigating the impacts of climate change. This page serves to signpost to advice, support and potential funding opportunities.

Wyres Rivers Trust

The Wyre Rivers Trust is an organsisation that works to improve the environment across the Wyre Catchment in North West Lancashire. They use a whole system approach to do this, which means farmers and landowners play a vital role. The Trust conducted a farm water survey and the results showed that only 18% of farms had a drought plan, despite most farms being impacted by drought in the previous 4 years. Many of the farms surveyed relied on water supplies from springs, streams and rivers which are vulnerable to issues with water supply and quality. This causes livestock farms to be increasingly susceptible to droughts and increased temperatures, this can impact livestock health, yield and profit. The Wyre Rivers Trust suggests that "All farms should adopt a reduce, capture and reuse, farm water resource strategy, to protect their businesses and animals from the current and future effects of climate change".

Preparing for drought

Follow the Wyre Rivers Trust guide for how to plan ahead for droughts:

• Create a farm drought plan
• Separate clean and dirty water systems in your farmyard
• Get to know your farm water requirements, how much do you need for essential and non-essential operations?
• In times of drought reduce non-essential water use, maintaining supplies for longer essential activities.
• Monitor for leaks and bursts, in guttering, pipes and troughs.
• If in a high rainfall area, install enhanced capacity guttering, allowing more water to be captured during times of heavy rainfall.
• Calculate your farms rainwater harvesting potential (depends on roof area and local rainfall totals). 
• Install rainwater harvesting facilities (appropriate for the amount of water you need and can collect) on farm buildings to provide a further source of non-potable water.
• Install ponds and other water bodies designed for storage, these can also offer benefits to wildlife and help protect downstream communites from flooding. 
• Assess soil compaction and check if infiltration is impeded. If necessary take actions to alleviate compaction such as sub soiling to help aid ground water recharge, making water supplies from springs and water courses less likely to run dry. 
• Reuse water from cooling systems for washing down parlours. 

The Wyre Rivers Trust have two Farm Cluster Groups; Upper Wyre Farm Cluster and the Brock and Calder Farm Cluster. The farm Clusters are an opportunity to bring farmers together to discuss and learn environmental and farming topics.

To access free and confidential advice and to discuss funding opportunities please contact: heather@wyreriverstrust.org

Other support available:

Environment Agency:

The Environment Agency is available to help provide advice on the Silage, Slurry and Agricultural Fuel Oil, Nitrate Vulnerable Zone, Farming Rules for Water regulations and funding. Please contact: CLA_ARIO@environment-agency.gov.uk for more information on farm inspections. Please report pollutions incidents on your own land as the Environment Agency may be able to assist in rolling out emergency mitigation to reduce the impact on the environment. 

Natural England and Catchment Sensitive Farming (CSF):

CSF is run by Natural England in partnership with Defra, Environment Agency and the Forestry Commission. CSF aims to work with organisations, farmers and catchment communities to improve air and water quality, whilst supporting the use of nature-based solutions to improve sustainable water management. Farmers can be supported through local expert advice, training and grant support. For more details please email: csf.northwest@naturalengland.org.uk

Chamber Low Carbon: 

As part of the UK Shared Prosperity Funding (UKSPF), the council has teamed up with the East Lancashire Chamber of Commerce to offer fully funded advice and support for businesses to transition to net zero. The programme is called Chamber Low Carbon and can provide 1-2-1 tailored support to: 

- Calculate and reduce your carbon footprint

- Reduce costs and improve performance

- Advise on the installation of on-site renewable energy

-Upskill and train workers

- Help you develop low carbon technology and innovation, and bring these products to the market

- Attend best practice events with other local businesses

The fully funded support is only available for a limited time up until March 2025. Register your interest via the Chamber Low Carbon online form for more information.

Farm Carbon Toolkit

The Farm Carbon Toolkit is a toolkit for farmers, created by farmers. It provides tools and services to help with their vision of minimising carbon emissions and maximising carbon sequestration. The Farm Carbon Toolkit also runs an annual Soil Farmer of the Year award, peer-to-peer training events, has partnerships with research institutions and much more.  

Check our disclaimer before using these services.