We’re cheerful now – but maybe not after three weeks of this Page 7
Experts fear more rainfall will be typical BY JOHN VON RADOWITZ wdnews@b-nm.co.uk After the alleged summer of 2012 the last thing farmers will want to hear is the latest piece of research from a West university suggesting we should get used to more rain. Expert scientists are saying melting Arctic sea ice may be to blame for the recent spate of soggy summers in the UK. Loss of ice due to climate change is affecting strong air currents high in the atmosphere, research suggests. As a result, weather systems
2012
The wettest summer in a century in the UK are being shifted bringing more summer rain to the UK and other parts of north-west Europe. Scientists at the University of Exeter used a computer model to simulate the effects of retreating Arctic sea ice on European climate. The model produced a pattern of rainfall consistent with an extraordinary run of washed-out summers experienced in the UK between 2007 and 2012. Lead researcher Dr James Screen said: “The results of the computer model suggest that melting Arctic sea ice causes a change in the position of the jet stream and this could help to explain the recent wet summers we have seen.
“The study suggests that loss of sea ice not only has an effect on the environment and wildlife of the Arctic region but has far-reaching consequences for people living in Europe and beyond.” Jet streams are powerful 200mph air currents high in the atmosphere that steer weather systems. Normally in summer, the polar jet stream flowing between Scotland and Iceland keeps bad weather north of the UK. When the jet stream shifts south, it brings unseasonable wet weather with it. Arctic sea ice is retreating at a rate of around half a million square kilometres per decade – about twice the area of the UK. The study, published in the journal Environmental Research Letters, compared weather patterns associated with low levels of Arctic sea ice and the high sea ice conditions seen in the late 1970s. It showed that while melting sea ice led to more summer rain in north-west Europe, Mediterranean regions were likely to get drier. Further ice loss could increase the risk of wet summers in the UK, say the scientists, although they make no prediction of future sea ice levels. In their paper, the researchers point out that the series of wet summers that doused north west Europe between 2007 and 2012 was “unprecedented”. For England and Wales, the summer of 2012 was the wettest and the summer of 2007 the second wettest since 1912.
Machinery sold 52 years after farm bought Things going full circle are part and parcel of life on a farm – but rarely is the symmetry as neat as an auction in Gloucestershire earlier this month. Fifty-two years after they sold a Cotswold farm, rural land agents Moore Allen and Innocent returned to the same field to auction the farm machinery of the man who bought it. John Peel purchased the 1,000-acre Dudgrove Farm, near Fairford, at the sale in 1961. And when he decided to contract out his land, he asked Moore Allen & Innocent to conduct the sale of 84 pieces of farm machinery – ranging from ploughs and cultivators
Auctioneer Peter Kirby at the sale of machinery in the Cotswolds
Some of the machinery accumulated in more than 50 years farming at Dudgrove Farm, near Fairford in Gloucestershire, which went under the hammer of auctioneer Moore, Allen and Innocent
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to tractors and a combine harvester – from the very same field. And as the vendor had been a brigade major in the Brigade of Guards before turning to farming, the auctioneers carefully set out the lots to represent a regimental parade. More than 100 farmers and dealers flocked from all over the UK – including Scotland, Ireland and Cornwall – for a chance to bid on the equipment, which was described by auctioneer Peter Kirby as being “maintained to an extremely high standard.” As expected, the top price of the day was achieved by the 2009 John Deere T56 combine harvester, which sold for £86,000. A 2007 New Holland T7050 tractor achieved £40,000, while a 2009 New Holland T6030 tractor made £29,000 and a 2001 New Holland 8770 tractor realised £20,250.
Bakers of Nailsea Ltd The New Abattoir, West End, Nailsea, BS48 4DD T: 01275 852017/856371 F: 01275 810308 E: enquiries@bakersofnailsea.co.uk
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Whether butter or badgers, it’s experience that counts Page 6
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