Europe’s farmers move to the night shift to beat the heat

{"text":[[{"start":6.6,"text":"At 2am, floodlights illuminate the machines moving across Eleanor Gilbert’s family farm in Berkshire. The 24-year-old is harvesting in the darkness to catch the slight dew that settles on the rapeseed overnight — the only way to raise its moisture content enough for buyers to accept it."}],[{"start":25.08,"text":"By about 10am, she switches to harvesting wheat and continues through the day. After two or three hours’ sleep, the sixth-generation farmer goes back out and begins again."}],[{"start":36.54,"text":"“It’s almost a bit like having jet lag,” said Gilbert. “You can’t sleep in the middle of the day; it’s just not normal.”"}],[{"start":43.36,"text":"Heatwaves are forcing farmers across Europe to modify how and when they work, from harvesting at night to covering fields with shade netting, cooling cattle sheds and abandoning planting schedules refined over decades."}],[{"start":56.48,"text":"The damage is already showing up in harvest forecasts. France’s agriculture ministry on Friday said grain maize production was expected to drop 35 per cent from last year to 9mn tonnes, its lowest level since at least 1980, as heat and droughts hit the growing season."}],[{"start":73.78,"text":"Produce farmers are faring no better. Potato growers around Madrid are picking once the sun goes down because lifting the crop from hot soil can damage its quality, while pig farmers in Corsica are feeding animals after dark when cooler temperatures make them more willing to eat."}],[{"start":89.68,"text":"Veteran Pietro Cifarelli, who grows grain and legumes near Altamura in the southern Italian region of Puglia, is another farmer who has started working under the stars."}],[{"start":99.96,"text":"“From 11 in the morning until six or seven in the evening, you cannot do anything,” said Cifarelli, 60. “If you touch a piece of metal, you literally burn your hands.”"}],[{"start":110.24,"text":"His smooth black chickpeas must be harvested after they have cooled overnight, he notes: during the day, their pods become so dry and brittle that the seeds scatter as soon as the plants are touched."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":121.34,"text":"In Berkshire, too much moisture used to be a problem for Gilbert’s family, who would normally wait for the morning dew to evaporate before harvesting oilseed rape. This year, however, the crop was so dry during the day that its moisture content did not register on the meter. Buyers can reject loads below 6 per cent moisture, she notes; harvesting at 2am allows the overnight dew to raise it to about 7 per cent."}],[{"start":146.68,"text":"Harvesting at night also reduces the danger of machinery igniting tinder-dry fields. Her family now takes water bowsers into the fields and keeps a cultivator nearby to create a firebreak. During a recent blaze, flames raced through the stubble within seconds, leaving them only metres from the fire as they tried to save the crop before firefighters arrived."}],[{"start":167.72,"text":"Drought has reduced yields on the Gilberts’ farm to roughly half the previous year’s level, she estimates, pushing the cost of producing a tonne of grain from about £150 in a good year to nearer £200. The family is considering whether it can continue to justify owning a combine harvester worth about £500,000, or to share machinery with a neighbour."}],[{"start":189.88,"text":"Further south in Devon, harvesting teams at organic vegetable company Riverford now start at 5am and aim to finish by 1pm or 2pm, said founder Guy Singh-Watson. Drivers set out early to deliver vegetable boxes from 6am, carrying extra ice packs to keep produce cool."}],[{"start":207.96,"text":"“We kind of knew it was coming, but always thought it was a problem our children would probably have to deal with,” he said. “It’s happened much, much faster.”"}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":216.48,"text":"Similar shifts have been under way in parts of Asia for several years. Dan Fairweather, head of food systems and nature at insurance broker Howden, said an agricultural investor backed projects providing farmers with illuminated headgear so they could work at night. But increasingly hot nights are now reducing the respite for both crops and workers."}],[{"start":236.6,"text":"Farmers are also being forced to innovate in other ways. In Lazio, Italy, Francesco Bracci struggles to keep his cows cool and milk production up. Cattle naturally produce less milk during hot weather, he said, but the fall this year was more than usual as animals suffered during the swings in temperature."}],[{"start":254,"text":"Production was down as much as 20 per cent on some farms, according to Coldiretti, the biggest Italian farmers’ union."}],[{"start":261.2,"text":"“Last year, I installed a ventilation system, but with temperatures now so high, the fans are no longer sufficient,” said Bracci. “So we need to add something else to support them. I have just bought a water-nebulisation system . . . The water lowers the temperature inside the cattle shed.”"}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":278.36,"text":"Farmers in France have struggled to protect animals even after taking similar measures. Temperatures above 40C in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in late June caused mass deaths in pig and poultry farms despite increased ventilation, misting and changes to feeding practices, according to the regional agricultural authority."}],[{"start":298.04,"text":"“We are adapting continuously because our primary concern is animal welfare,” said Bracci. “Year after year, we try to adapt the cattle sheds to the changing climate so that the animals remain well. But adapting the cattle sheds means facing very high costs because of climate change.”"}],[{"start":315.04,"text":"Those costs extend beyond the sheds. The forage Bracci needs to feed his cattle now requires irrigation every five days instead of every 10. Water is pumped from rivers using diesel-powered engines, and the price he paid for agricultural diesel has increased from €0.90 to €1.45 a litre."}],[{"start":333.2,"text":"Italy is facing what farmers’ association Coldiretti has called a “two-speed climate emergency”, with severe hailstorms in the north and wildfires and extreme heat in the south. Early estimates suggested agricultural losses from the latest events running into hundreds of millions of euros, it said."}],[{"start":350.48,"text":"The wider cost is already substantial. Insurance broker Howden conducted research for the European Investment Bank that estimated climate-related events caused about €28bn of agricultural losses across the EU each year, most of them uninsured."}],[{"start":365.68,"text":"Fairweather said average annual losses could rise to about €40bn by 2050. Heat also affects quality: grain with reduced protein content may have to be sold into cheaper markets. “You not only have less of it,” he adds. “It is of a much lower quality.”"}],[{"start":383.16,"text":"In the UK, the National Farmers’ Union advocates the development of crop varieties that are more resilient and for planning water storage during drought."}],[{"start":388.88,"text":"At Riverford, Singh-Watson has spent four decades recording planting and harvesting dates, building models intended to predict when vegetables would be ready for customers. Those calculations are rendered increasingly useless by swings in temperature and rainfall."}],[{"start":404.28,"text":"“All that information, you could just tear it up and throw it away,” he said. “It’s just of no value.”"}],[{"start":410.6,"text":"Additional reporting by Madeleine Speed"}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":417.08,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1786517453_4468.mp3"}