Farmers and wine makers paying the price for one of the wettest Septembers on record

Local farmers and wine makers have said the heavy rain this autumn is affecting their crops and livestock and having an impact on their businesses.

Andrew Woollatt, who runs Hedges Farm in St Albans, told ITV News he has rarely seen weather like it - and fields normally full of cows are instead under water.

Hertfordshire saw its wettest September on record this year, with three times the amount of normal rainfall.

Mr Woollatt said his fields had fallen victim to 'poaching', the process in which meadows are destroyed by the cattle churning up the wet ground.

It means there's less grass for his cows to graze on and the planting of seeds for animal feed has had to be pushed back.

All of this costs money, with cows needing supplements in their diets and crops likely to produce smaller yields.

Mr Woollatt said he will have to absorb the cost, but the National Farmer's Union says the weather could end up hitting consumers.

The NFU's Director of Strategy Nick Von Westenholz said: "All of this can be the difference for a farmer between having a profitable year and having a year where he's making a loss.

"But there will be a knock on for the consumer as well because ultimately this means fewer crops being produced and less feed for livestock and that all puts pressure in the market place."

And the wet weather isn't just a problem for farmers. A vineyard in Surrey has said they are about two weeks behind in picking this year's grapes.

Denbies Wine Estate in Dorking relies on the weather to ensure their grapes have just the right levels of sweetness.

Chief executive Christopher White told ITV News London: "As you get closer to harvest you need the maximum amount of sunshine ... when you have cloud cover and rain they slow down the sugars and the photosynthesis slows down.

"We need a bit of dry weather to make sure that the volume in it, the sugars are correct, the acidity is correct and the flavours are all there."

2023 was a bumper year for the estate, but Mr White said he expects the volume of its yield this year to be down by around 30 per cent.

"The volumes will be down this year because the bunch weight is down ... the cost of production in the vineyard is about the same year on year so if the volume is down, per litre or per bottle it will go up proportionately," he said.

And he added that it's part of a wider pattern of a changing climate: "Year on year we've noticed that the season has changed on a regular basis ... weather is changing, we are experiencing global warming. Many factors are getting easier to make wine here in the UK but we do get extremes within that."

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