Royal Borough farmers 'hanging on by the fingernails' as tough harvest adds to worries

Farming in the Royal Borough is ‘hanging on by its fingernails’ as a difficult harvest mounts up alongside international trade wars and a changing climate.

A scorching hot summer and drenching winter will make 2025 one of the worst harvests on record in the United Kingdom, according to analysis by agriculture experts.

The Advertiser spoke to three farmers in the borough, about their reflections on this year and what it could mean looking forward.

‘Dramatic changes’

Colin Rayner, who owns farmland in Burchetts Green and in Horton, made the ‘hanging on by its fingernails’ comments when asked about the future of agriculture in the Royal Borough.

He farms wheat, winter barley, oilseed rape and cattle. But fallout from this year’s problem weather conditions has led to the crop yields being ‘much lower’ than expected.

Mr Rayner added: “Because the weather’s changed so dramatically in the Thames Valley in the last 30 years, we’re now questioning whether we can grow wheat and barley.”

Wheat is a cash crop that farmers rely on for profitable returns. But while prices increase at the supermarket checkout, that is not what farmers are seeing at the start of the food chain.

Mr Rayner said: “It does make me angry, when I was listening to Radio 4 the other day and they were saying the meat has gone up in supermarkets, bread has gone up too.

“It hasn’t for us, that’s for sure.”

Problem harvests are not unique to the Royal Borough this year, as wheat, oats and barley produced some of the lowest yields yet across the UK.

Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board data, analysed by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, found 2025 to be the fifth-worst harvest in the country since 1984.

‘Prices on the floor’

If a changing climate was not enough to contend with, Berkshire farmers are caught in the middle of international trade wars – competing with cheaper foreign suppliers.

James Copas told the Advertiser: “Yes, we're having a bad harvest over here, but the rest of the other parts of the world are having a good harvest, such as America, so the price is on the floor.”

The Copas family, who bought their first farm in 1901, grow cops on 1,828 acres of land, of which wheat is a key commodity and is sold on to make everyday products like bread.

But this year’s return – 747 tonnes less than budgeted for – is the farm’s worst since 2012.

Mr Copas said: “It does put it in jeopardy – we have to do something different with our land.

“We can’t carry on growing wheat as we are at the moment. We can’t carry on making a loss.”

When told about Mr Rayner’s comments about the hanging balance of the Royal Borough’s farming industry, Mr Copas said: “I think that's right.”

He said: “We need some assurance from Government [about] whether they're going to back the sustainable farming incentives so we can budget and plan for the future.”

‘Challenges across all sectors’

William Emmett grows grains and vegetable crops on his land, which spans nearly 1,900 acres and includes fields in Bray and Taplow.

He said: “It’s quite a challenge across all sectors of my business; potato yields are down significantly, vegetable yields are down. We grow tenderstem broccoli, for instance.

“In Bray, if you go through the village you’ll see a lot of it growing at the moment, but the yields are bad because of this summer.”

Mr Emmett also grows haylage [similar to hay] for polo horses, but his yields this year were around 50 per cent lower than expected.

While farmers are diversifying their land – offering a more varied crop variety and independent farm shops – they are fighting declining margins. Mr Emmett said: “The cake is getting smaller, and the slices of the cake are getting smaller.”

A spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said: “Our commitment to resilient farming and food security is steadfast – allocating a record £11.8billion towards sustainable farming and food production.

We are working with farmers to build greater resilience to climate change including through the National Drought Group and Floods Resilience Taskforce.”