Cambridgeshire farmer Anne Marie Hamilton writes on the weather this month.

If I had a pound for every time someone says to me that farmers are always complaining about the weather, I could probably have afforded to retire many years ago.

In fairness it is a justified comment but things are not always exactly what they seem.

That the farming industry is obsessed with the weather is hardly surprising as it is pivotal to the success or failure of the whole business.

It is the one element that nobody can control, and when the weather is against you, the losses can be huge.

It is easy to forget that each farm is an individual business. If it makes a loss, there is no safety net; it is just tough luck – which can make farming a higher risk than ‘high roller’ gambling at the casino.

Naturally, farmers go to great lengths to protect their crops, but it only takes a strong wind or sudden hailstorm just before harvest to decimate a crop in minutes, and leave a year’s hard work lying on the floor, irretrievably lost.

Farmers are so used to living with these anxieties that they tend to assume (usually erroneously) that they are universally understood, and therefore need no further explanation.

A perfect example came up the other evening. Rob and I were sitting outside, enjoying the last rays of sunshine on the third dry day in succession.

My comment of, 'this is bliss' was greeted with, 'we could do with a drop of rain'. After months of unending rain, this might have sounded a somewhat churlish response, had I not been used to ‘farmer’s shorthand''.

Let me translate what he really meant: Like humans, plants loathe hostile conditions so, if they are drilled into cold, wet soil, they will only develop a very shallow root system, rather than putting deep roots down into a warm soil, to seek out moisture.

This makes them highly susceptible to stress in dry weather, which can put the viability of the whole crop at risk if it continues for any length of time.

So, the next time your cheery greeting of 'lovely day' is greeted with a grumpy-sounding response, feel flattered. Rather than being given the brush-off, you are being treated as an equal – one who speaks fluent ‘farmer'. 

PS. Rob got his longed-for rain again that night!