Advice and support
Wyre 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
Forest of Bowland Farmer Group
The Forest of Bowland Farmer Group host themed meetings, delivering information on relevant farming topics which will help farmers adjust during the agricultural transition. The meetings will be held on farms where possible, with farmers who are already involved in that topic, with key speakers and partner organisations invited to deliver information. We hope that these events will be informative, give farmers the chance to explore farming opportunities, and help to develop new friendships and contacts across the National Landscape.
Alongside these events, group members receive quarterly e-newsletters and email updates which will include details of potential funding opportunities, local training courses and meetings, updates from the rural crime and policing team, and of course our own Forest of Bowland Farmer Group events.
There is no charge for becoming a member and you can choose how involved you want to be, there is no pressure to attend all the meetings. Please use the Forest of Bowland Farmer Group contacts for support.
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