THE weather for 2018 has certainly been one for the record books.

March saw a cold wave, dubbed The Beast from the East which brought widespread unusually low temperatures and heavy snowfall to large areas.

Then a complete turnaround of misfortunes saw UK temperatures hitting consistently high levels and no rain falling from the end of May and comparisons were made with the infamous drought of 1976.

Although pockets of Wales saw sharp showers, there was no respite for the country’s gardens and fields.

One Monmouthshire soft fruit grower is facing up to the reality of losing up to a third of the 2018 crop.

Andrew Tabb of McConnel farms, near Skenfrith, said that he faces losing a third of his blackcurrant crop because of the dry conditions.

“Basically we have run out of water,” he told the Beacon this week. “The man-made pond we normally use to water our fruit trees has not been able to keep up with our watering needs and we have stopped drawing from it as any further decrease in the water level will destroy the habitat around the pond.

“Some of the fruit trees will suffer ‘sudden dieback’ with the lack of rain and the long-term effects of that will be nothing short of a catastrophe as it takes four years for a new crop to bear fruit. We cannot plant a new bush in between older bushes as they will overwhelm the new ones, so complete areas will have to be replanted.”

Farmers began cutting wheat and silage early this year as crops were failing to make any further growth with the grass especially begining to lose its moisture.

Dairy, beef and sheep farmers are already ‘buffer-feeding’ - supplementing the grass available in the fields with some of their first cut silage - and farms may be forced to sell some of their herds rather than face watching their winter fodder stocks evaporate before the autumn. Reports from markets suggest abattoirs are working to near capacity.

With no real grass regrowth since silaging, very little second-cut silage will be made and winter stocks will be unseasonably low come winter.

With no immediate sign of a decent rainfall forecast, the prospect of higher food prices in the shops may become a reality as every day of hot, dry weather reduces the prospects for the size of the UK wheat crop, expected to be between 14m tonnes and 14.5m tonnes and with Brazil, Australia and China also experiencing dry periods, it looks like Russia could be holding a trump card despite having lower yields themselves.