A Welsh Christmas tree farmer has had to invest more than £20,000 to ‘make it rain’ in order to make sure that his business can “get over the worst” of the continued dry spell across the country.
Rob Morgan, owner of Gower Fresh Christmas Trees, invests a huge amount of time and effort into his firm, and is no stranger to the battle of summertime. In the summer of 2018 he said he lost around 10,000 new Christmas trees that he was growing on the land due to a heatwave. You can get the latest WalesOnline newsletters e-mailed to you directly for free by signing up here.
Last summer saw prolonged warm temperatures too, and the last month has seen a consistent period of fine and sunny weather, with the last rainfall in Swansea seen back on May 9. With the hot weather expected to last for at least another nine or 10 days, Mr Morgan has invested £22,000 in a new system which effectively makes it rain on his land by pumping water over his crops.
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“Every farmer is going through the water problem at the moment,” Mr Morgan told BBC Radio Wales on Friday. “It seems to be a bit of a regular occurrence every year, every May, every June, it’s an important time for farmers. I’ve probably invested in the last week about £22,000 on a big tanker with a rain gun on the top.”
Mr Morgan, who also grows sunflowers, used to work as a cattle farmer and added: “I’ve got to tweak the way we grow things and crops due to the weather to be honest. Instead of working against nature we’ve got to go with it. I’m not complaining as a farmer, we get on with things, but it’s a full-time job, 365 days a year. “
The hot and dry weather in Wales isn’t expected to change for a good while yet, with temperatures expected to stay at around 21C to 22C over the weekend and early into next week, and even approaching 25C in parts of Wales as we get towards Friday.
Next weekend should also remain much the same, with temperatures of 23C forecast for Cardiff on both Saturday and Sunday (June 10 and 11). Some rain is expected in parts of Wales on Monday, June 12, a full nine days from now.
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