A heat wave across the pond stands to have damaging effects on agriculture in the UK. That’s coming up on This Land of Ours.
A record-breaking heat wave in the UK and Europe is playing havoc with crops and livestock. USDA meteorologist Eric Luebehusen says the heatwave has been severe.
“The big corn province there is called Castilla y León. It’s in the north-western corner of the country,” he said. “Starting on July 9, Castilla y León had ten consecutive days at or above 95 degrees Fahrenheit, which is the generally accepted threshold for damages to corn in the reproductive stages of development and that’s where the corn was. During that same period, eight of those days were above 100 degrees Fahrenheit. And, an astounding six had highs that topped 104 degrees Fahrenheit.”
He says it could be a while before all the effects of the damage are known.
“Obviously, the agricultural impacts are going to be significant,” he said. “It’s going to take us weeks to ascertain what the yield impacts are, but I can assure you, given the estimated crop stages that we have using our weather data I have never seen anything quite as bad when it comes to timing and intensity as I’m seeing for Spain and France’s corn crop.”
Listen to Sabrina Halvorson’s This Land of Ours program here.
Sabrina Halvorson
National Correspondent / AgNet Media, Inc.
Sabrina Halvorson is an award-winning journalist, broadcaster, and public speaker who specializes in agriculture. She primarily reports on legislative issues and hosts The AgNet Weekly podcast. Sabrina is a native of California’s agriculture-rich Central Valley.