August 2, 2026 • 8 mins
Our UK farming correspondent updates on the drought, wildfires, poor returns for arable farmers, a digital celebration of British farming, and Andy Burnham’s good start at No. 10 Downing Street.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Here's a UK farm and correspondent farmer Tom Martin, social
media influencer Arable farmer just north of London, and Tom,
I'd like to say how you're going, but I'm afraid
to ask. With all the droughts and wildfires, how are
you going?
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Well? We won't mention the cricket. The weather is terrible.
The harvest yields are very low. We're desperate for rain,
but that is in the south and the east there
is whilst it's dry. In the West and the north
they have had a little bit more rain. That said,
the whole of Wales is in droughts. It's been and
then everything seems to be on fire. It's a challenging time.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Have you known wildfires like this before? We know that
Europe is getting used to them these days, but this
is sort of a new phenomenon, isn't it. In England?
Speaker 2 (00:47):
I mean we've always had We've always had fires, but
there are some very intense fires that There's been a
movement in the last kind of few years, really five
ten years to reduce sort of ban the winter season
burning of heather. Now that basically burns off any old
material and doesn't affect the living heather beneath. But what
when you don't burn that off, you end up with
(01:08):
an enormous fuel load of dead material. And of course
you get a spark in the summertime and you get
really intense hot fires burning down into peat, which is
our important carbon store. So it's been a hell of
a time. We've had really north, northwest, east south fires
all over the place.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Talk to me about your cropping operation, because I'm reading
that you've got record low crop yields and some places.
I think it's the earliest harvest in Britain for twenty years.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Well, the earliest harvest I've known about. Our wheat harvest
finished on the second of August this year. We finished
the twenty second of July, so it's not a day
or two early, it's it's markedly earlier. And that's reflected
across the east and the south. I mean, we're all
we're all done, and this is we typically be getting
into the wheat about now. You know, I've forgotten. It's
(02:01):
in the rear view mirror. We had we had a
very warm autumn, so we're getting a lot of balle
yellow dwarf virus I think affecting our yields, and then
we've had just incredibly dry time when we're used to
having on our farm two hundred and fifty millimeters of
rain between the first of March and now we've had
(02:24):
sixty and that all came in one weekend. So it's
been it's been hellish. But interestingly, my cropper buckwheat, my
crop of sunflowers, which is not something that's grown in
the UK, or certainly not this part of the UK,
one not in the UK at all, are looking great.
So maybe we need to look at some more, look
at what they're doing in the me Terrane in the
warmer climates and trying to imitate that, because it seems
(02:46):
like this is a pattern which is continuing.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Give me an example of how much your yields are
down by.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
It varies across different varieties, but I would say on
our farm there down by about a quarterast year, they
were down by nearly the same amount. So yeah, we've
had a really really challenging time. And I'm hearing about
a big estates who I would be expecting to be
harvesting eight tons of wheat per hectare that are down
at two and three tons, and that is that's a disaster.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Coupled with Trump's tariffs, or maybe not so much tariffs
as war in the Middle East and the resultant effect
that has ahead on fuel and fertilizer. It must be
incredibly difficult at the moment for British arable farmers.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Well, it must be the same all over the world.
We've not seen that that global price rise that we
that we had when Putin invaded Ukraine, when you know
when fuel and fertilizer went up then and wheat for
US was two hundred and fifty pounds a ton. You
can deal with that if everything just rises at the
same time. But there's been very little response by the
(03:54):
global by the global grain markets to you know, to
reward what is now going to be a kind of
ongoing increased cost of production. So it's a really I
don't want to sound like a winging pom, but it's
a tough time and it's a tough time for farmers
around the world, but especially in the UK. There's a
(04:15):
lot of things coinciding.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Talk to me about some good stories or I've got
one good story, I've got another shocker of the story
to get through. But I want to turn it around
pervot as they say, Tom Farm twenty four hashtag Farm
twenty four a powerful twenty four hour hour digital celebration
of British farming. No doubt, being the big social media
influencer you are, you would be fronter and you would
(04:38):
have been front and center at that.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
I've been involved in it over several years and it's
not something that anyone's particularly front and center on. They
just encourage, which I completely believe in, everybody to take part.
Anybody can take a photo of what they're up to
on that particular day, post it and just with a
little bit of an explainer. It's a great way for
people to connect with where their food comes from, food
(05:05):
farming in rural life. But it's also had fantastic media
coverage from all the kind of major channels, radio stations
and print and online media right down to the local
BBC station. So it's and I listened throughout the day
it was there was some great coverage, and I think
particularly so much going on and so much that's relevant
to the everyday person. It really landed particularly well this year,
(05:27):
and that.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Was held on July the thirtieth. Okay, that's the end
of the good news stories, and I don't know whether
you've picked up on this one. There's a new TikTok
trend encouraging young and may I say, dopey, bloody, dopey
people to sit fire to anything in front of them. Consequently,
there's been a spate of overnight arson attachs on hayestacks
in the north of England. I mean, how dumb can
(05:50):
you be?
Speaker 2 (05:51):
I wasn't aware of this, but I mean it's a
head in hands moment. I mean, how unbelievably stupid. I
don't understand that the thrill of it. I don't understand
why that will be a thing. I don't understand why
the social media platforms are even allowed to carry that.
It's incitement to commit a crime, if at the very
base level. So it's insane, and our firemen and women
(06:15):
are busy enough as it is. There's a RSPB men's mire.
There's a big nature reserve. I've had two nature reserves
in Suffolk very close to us that have been burning
for days. They've had one hundred and eighty five and
a women there, engines all over the place, and so
when they're that stretched, what kind of an idiot would
(06:37):
start another fire. I mean, it's unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Andy Burnham seems to have started well, he's got on
to the front foot there in UK politics. They're talking
about him lasting more than a few months, like a
typical prime minister of recent years.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Well, I'm all in favor of a prime minister being
voted in and getting a chance to get his or
her feet under the table before they that they get
they get put out to pasture. I don't know how
he's going to be he's doing. He's making lots of
him certainly made a lot of announcements in his first
week or two. I agree with him on the National
Care Service. I think the care situation of the uk
(07:13):
IS is very challenging and money could be spent better.
So he's doing some seemingly making some half well thought
out at least announcements, But it could just be to
court the media and become of national national opinion very
much taking a leaf out of at Tony Blair's book,
Actually who came in real surge of popularity, made some
(07:34):
very popular announcements and uh, you know, and then and
then continued on we will see. I don't think the
Labor Party are held in particularly high esteem by a
fair chunk of the country. But they're certainly doing doing
a good job at putting the reform down at the moment,
which of course is fascinating. Biolects and going on in Clacton,
(07:56):
where the leader of the Reform Party, Niger Frager, stepped
down over a seemingly a petty squabble. He's then triggered
a by election where he's looking to be re elected
with a new mandate as they now say, they like
the word mandate d They and none of the major
parties are standing against him, so it's basically the race
is going to come down to him or a comedian
(08:18):
with a bin on his head called Count Binface. Couldn't
you couldn't make it up?
Speaker 1 (08:22):
I love that story. I've just run out of time
to talk about the Commonwealth Games and the antipode and
Antelopes coming to the mother Land and taking all the
gold medals, mainly Australia to beat there. I think you
guys finished sick, but you haven't even watched the Commonwealth
Games because they weren't on BBC. Farmer Tom Martin, thanks
for your time, appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Thanks Jermie
Here's a UK farm and correspondent farmer Tom Martin, social
media influencer Arable farmer just north of London, and Tom,
I'd like to say how you're going, but I'm afraid
to ask. With all the droughts and wildfires, how are
you going?
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Well? We won't mention the cricket. The weather is terrible.
The harvest yields are very low. We're desperate for rain,
but that is in the south and the east there
is whilst it's dry. In the West and the north
they have had a little bit more rain. That said,
the whole of Wales is in droughts. It's been and
then everything seems to be on fire. It's a challenging time.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Have you known wildfires like this before? We know that
Europe is getting used to them these days, but this
is sort of a new phenomenon, isn't it. In England?
Speaker 2 (00:47):
I mean we've always had We've always had fires, but
there are some very intense fires that There's been a
movement in the last kind of few years, really five
ten years to reduce sort of ban the winter season
burning of heather. Now that basically burns off any old
material and doesn't affect the living heather beneath. But what
when you don't burn that off, you end up with
(01:08):
an enormous fuel load of dead material. And of course
you get a spark in the summertime and you get
really intense hot fires burning down into peat, which is
our important carbon store. So it's been a hell of
a time. We've had really north, northwest, east south fires
all over the place.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Talk to me about your cropping operation, because I'm reading
that you've got record low crop yields and some places.
I think it's the earliest harvest in Britain for twenty years.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Well, the earliest harvest I've known about. Our wheat harvest
finished on the second of August this year. We finished
the twenty second of July, so it's not a day
or two early, it's it's markedly earlier. And that's reflected
across the east and the south. I mean, we're all
we're all done, and this is we typically be getting
into the wheat about now. You know, I've forgotten. It's
(02:01):
in the rear view mirror. We had we had a
very warm autumn, so we're getting a lot of balle
yellow dwarf virus I think affecting our yields, and then
we've had just incredibly dry time when we're used to
having on our farm two hundred and fifty millimeters of
rain between the first of March and now we've had
(02:24):
sixty and that all came in one weekend. So it's
been it's been hellish. But interestingly, my cropper buckwheat, my
crop of sunflowers, which is not something that's grown in
the UK, or certainly not this part of the UK,
one not in the UK at all, are looking great.
So maybe we need to look at some more, look
at what they're doing in the me Terrane in the
warmer climates and trying to imitate that, because it seems
(02:46):
like this is a pattern which is continuing.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Give me an example of how much your yields are
down by.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
It varies across different varieties, but I would say on
our farm there down by about a quarterast year, they
were down by nearly the same amount. So yeah, we've
had a really really challenging time. And I'm hearing about
a big estates who I would be expecting to be
harvesting eight tons of wheat per hectare that are down
at two and three tons, and that is that's a disaster.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Coupled with Trump's tariffs, or maybe not so much tariffs
as war in the Middle East and the resultant effect
that has ahead on fuel and fertilizer. It must be
incredibly difficult at the moment for British arable farmers.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Well, it must be the same all over the world.
We've not seen that that global price rise that we
that we had when Putin invaded Ukraine, when you know
when fuel and fertilizer went up then and wheat for
US was two hundred and fifty pounds a ton. You
can deal with that if everything just rises at the
same time. But there's been very little response by the
(03:54):
global by the global grain markets to you know, to
reward what is now going to be a kind of
ongoing increased cost of production. So it's a really I
don't want to sound like a winging pom, but it's
a tough time and it's a tough time for farmers
around the world, but especially in the UK. There's a
(04:15):
lot of things coinciding.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Talk to me about some good stories or I've got
one good story, I've got another shocker of the story
to get through. But I want to turn it around
pervot as they say, Tom Farm twenty four hashtag Farm
twenty four a powerful twenty four hour hour digital celebration
of British farming. No doubt, being the big social media
influencer you are, you would be fronter and you would
(04:38):
have been front and center at that.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
I've been involved in it over several years and it's
not something that anyone's particularly front and center on. They
just encourage, which I completely believe in, everybody to take part.
Anybody can take a photo of what they're up to
on that particular day, post it and just with a
little bit of an explainer. It's a great way for
people to connect with where their food comes from, food
(05:05):
farming in rural life. But it's also had fantastic media
coverage from all the kind of major channels, radio stations
and print and online media right down to the local
BBC station. So it's and I listened throughout the day
it was there was some great coverage, and I think
particularly so much going on and so much that's relevant
to the everyday person. It really landed particularly well this year,
(05:27):
and that.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Was held on July the thirtieth. Okay, that's the end
of the good news stories, and I don't know whether
you've picked up on this one. There's a new TikTok
trend encouraging young and may I say, dopey, bloody, dopey
people to sit fire to anything in front of them. Consequently,
there's been a spate of overnight arson attachs on hayestacks
in the north of England. I mean, how dumb can
(05:50):
you be?
Speaker 2 (05:51):
I wasn't aware of this, but I mean it's a
head in hands moment. I mean, how unbelievably stupid. I
don't understand that the thrill of it. I don't understand
why that will be a thing. I don't understand why
the social media platforms are even allowed to carry that.
It's incitement to commit a crime, if at the very
base level. So it's insane, and our firemen and women
(06:15):
are busy enough as it is. There's a RSPB men's mire.
There's a big nature reserve. I've had two nature reserves
in Suffolk very close to us that have been burning
for days. They've had one hundred and eighty five and
a women there, engines all over the place, and so
when they're that stretched, what kind of an idiot would
(06:37):
start another fire. I mean, it's unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Andy Burnham seems to have started well, he's got on
to the front foot there in UK politics. They're talking
about him lasting more than a few months, like a
typical prime minister of recent years.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Well, I'm all in favor of a prime minister being
voted in and getting a chance to get his or
her feet under the table before they that they get
they get put out to pasture. I don't know how
he's going to be he's doing. He's making lots of
him certainly made a lot of announcements in his first
week or two. I agree with him on the National
Care Service. I think the care situation of the uk
(07:13):
IS is very challenging and money could be spent better.
So he's doing some seemingly making some half well thought
out at least announcements, But it could just be to
court the media and become of national national opinion very
much taking a leaf out of at Tony Blair's book,
Actually who came in real surge of popularity, made some
(07:34):
very popular announcements and uh, you know, and then and
then continued on we will see. I don't think the
Labor Party are held in particularly high esteem by a
fair chunk of the country. But they're certainly doing doing
a good job at putting the reform down at the moment,
which of course is fascinating. Biolects and going on in Clacton,
(07:56):
where the leader of the Reform Party, Niger Frager, stepped
down over a seemingly a petty squabble. He's then triggered
a by election where he's looking to be re elected
with a new mandate as they now say, they like
the word mandate d They and none of the major
parties are standing against him, so it's basically the race
is going to come down to him or a comedian
(08:18):
with a bin on his head called Count Binface. Couldn't
you couldn't make it up?
Speaker 1 (08:22):
I love that story. I've just run out of time
to talk about the Commonwealth Games and the antipode and
Antelopes coming to the mother Land and taking all the
gold medals, mainly Australia to beat there. I think you
guys finished sick, but you haven't even watched the Commonwealth
Games because they weren't on BBC. Farmer Tom Martin, thanks
for your time, appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Thanks Jermie
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by Audiochuck Media Company.
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.