June's hot summer days have brought climate change discussions into sharper focus at Eves Hill Farm near Reepham - the subject of our monthly "year in the life of a Norfolk farm" features.
There was a sense of the "calm before the storm" at Eves Hill Farm this month.
The June warmth has been ripening wheat and barley grains ahead of the hectic harvest season, which is due to swing into action in the next few weeks.
Meanwhile this seasonal lull has created time to host meetings and attend industry events - but the hot weather has also brought its challenges for farmer Jeremy Buxton.
They include working to prevent heat stress in crops and cattle - and even dealing with his own debilitating bout of hayfever.
"We are always conscious of heat stress," said Mr Buxton.
"If livestock are stressed they don't feed as much, so they have reduced gains in body weight and they lose condition. It is not good for the animal, and it is not good for the farm's finances.
"This is something we discuss here a lot. At the moment in the UK, we don't have the really, really hot days like they have in America and places like that, so although we are worried about it, it has to be super-hot for it to provide a real problem - but it does still happen."
Part of his solution is to provide more shade through initiatives such as the farm's new agro-forestry project, launched last month, which saw 1,200 willow trees planted in strips within grazing pastures.
Heat tolerance has also become part of the breeding strategy for the farm's Hereford cattle herd.
"We try to provide the animals with shade, but also some animals are better at coping with heat than others, so we are trying to find those genetics in the animals - take the ones that cannot cope with the heat out of the herd, and keep the ones in that can," said Mr Buxton.
"The chickens have shade with their egg shelter and we provide the pigs with a wallowing area, we just spray some water on the ground and create a muddy area and they just roll around and use the mud as sun screen to stay cool.
"Thankfully we have not had any issues caused by the heat this year."
Hayfever 'misery'
But one animal which did suffer this summer is the farmer himself.
He said his worst-ever bout of hayfever left him frustrated and housebound as the pollen count rose.
"It was terrible, I couldn't leave the house at one point," he said.
"My wife said I was like a bear with a sore head. I had the big puffy itchy eyes, nose streaming, wheezing. So I didn't feel great - but I also couldn't get out and get on with things.
"I was just miserable, sat in the house doing paperwork, because I couldn't be outside.
"It stopped my productivity for a while because there are jobs that need to be done and there are still animals to take care of, so I had to go out to take care of those.
"I was wearing a Covid mask in the herbal leys to try to keep the pollen out.
"I had to get a prescription of tablets from the GP. But I have also tapped into the beekeepers we have on the farm and some advised I should try nettle tea and the honey off our farm as well, as an antidote to the pollen."
Drought resilience
The arable crops on the farm are coping well with the weather, said Mr Buxton, making him optimistic for the coming harvest - which he hopes could begin by the end of July.
"It is about creating strong and healthy plants so they can cope with heat stress," he said.
He said an important factor is the health and water retention of his soils, boosted by the use of lush herbal leys as grazing pastures for the cattle.
"Part of the reason we have got herbal leys is they are resistant to drought, because there is such a diversity in plant species," he said.
"There are about 18 species in there that all have different rooting depths, so the herbal leys are fantastic for providing lots of forage throughout the grazing season, no matter what the weather.
"There are lots of legumes, lots of different varieties of clovers, herbs, things like bird's-foot trefoil, sainfoin, chicory, so there is always something flowering and they are great for biodiversity and pollinators."
Regenerative inspiration
The farm's "regenerative farming" approach was showcased to 15 farmers from across East Anglia when Eves Hill hosted a workshop run by expert consultant Niels Corfield.
"The principle of the course was soil health, and how we look after our soils so they can feed and look after the plants by making use of natural resources," said Mr Buxton.
"So that's about capturing rain water and keeping it through good infiltration into healthy soils, and also capturing the nitrogen that is in the atmosphere, making use of these free resources so we are not having to use synthetic fertilisers.
"In one respect we as farmers are in the business of solar energy - all of those plants in our fields are solar panels capturing sunlight to photosynthesise, so the more plants and the more species, the more sunlight you are capturing, and you can turn that solar energy into food."
Mr Buxton said climate change was one of the main reasons he chose to make his farm more soil-friendly and environmentally-resilient.
"I definitely feel that farmers can be the heroes in this and make a really big difference in slowing down climate change," he said.
Industry events
The course was one of several industry events which have filled the pre-harvest calendar this month.
"Although everything is calm on the farm it still feels like we're really busy," said Mr Buxton.
"June is a month of knowledge exchange and sharing information. So I've been incredibly busy even though I've not been doing much farming."
Those events included a visit to the Groundswell regenerative agriculture show and conference in Hertfordshire.
"It is so satisfying to walk around and see so many farmers from Norfolk there," said Mr Buxton. "There is a huge interest in it."
And this week, his family will be enjoying the much-anticipated return of the Royal Norfolk Show, being held for the first time in three years after two successive Covid cancellations.
"It s great that it is back," he said. "It is really good for the farming community, it is a great social event, and it is great to see where the industry is at in terns of the exhibitors.
"And it is really lovely to see the public turning up to enjoy what we are doing."
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