Farming at Hinton Ampner

Charlie Flindt used to produce 1,800 tonnes of grain each year on the Hinton Ampner Estate before the National Trust took the fields out of production.

A former farmer on the National Trust’s Hinton Ampner estate writes to The Times on the decline in wheat harvests.

Sir,

The Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit’s claim that the 22 per cent drop in wheat harvest is down to climate change (“Rain slashes harvest”, news, Oct 11) is not wholly true. Tens of thousands of acres, many of them prime wheat-growing farmland, have been turned over to solar farms, wind turbines and “anything but food” farming in recent years. These measures guarantee a drop in harvest long before climate change has any effect.

Charlie Flindt

Former arable farmer, Hinton Ampner, Hants

From The Times, 12 October 2024