How a farmer in the southwest is diversifying her business in the face of floods
Gloucester farmer Debbie Wilkins shares her story dealing with the changes in weather in the last few years
Listen to Debbie’s Story:
Debbie Wilkins is a British farmer. Her farm, the Norton Court Farm in the Severn Vale in Gloucestershire, is a mixed dairy, beef and arable farm.
Debbie grew up on the farm and later inherited it from her father, and floods have always been part of her life, but the changes in weather over the last decade or so have made things a little more complicated.
Some neighbours have stopped farming altogether because large amounts of their land was underwater for too much of the year. When we went to visit, she showed us around and explained how she’s farming in ways that build resilience against the increasing frequency and intensity of floods and how changes in weather have impacted her, her farm and her life.
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“When I was a child we had flooding I think every 5/6 years and now this is our second flood this year and it’s December.
I’ve changed my business to adapt to what I see is coming…you have to build in resilience to it.”
“…[the cows’] field will get smaller as the flood comes up. Quite often I have swans swimming on there, and ducks and stuff, and it all looks very picturesque but you don’t particularly want swans swimming on your field, you prefer the cows grazing on it.”
“We get hotter and drier weather in the summer and when it rains you get bigger amounts of water in one go. Everything’s kind of pushed a little bit further. I’m hoping that because I’m farming in a nature friendly way that I’m slightly cushioned from that. For me, that gives me that resilience and flexibility but it does mean I don’t maximise the money from each acre so it makes it financially harder.”
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Stories From Round Our Way. Everyday conversations with people impacted by climate change.