Voluntary restrictions in place as English counties remain in drought

THE English counties of Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire and parts of Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire and Norfolk are still in a drought, the Environment Agency said in a report on its website.

Voluntary restrictions are still in place for about 180 farmers near the Cambridgeshire Fens, according to the report.

Winter wheat in Britain is being threatened by at least one new race of the plant disease, brown rust, according to a report from the National Institute of Agricultural Botany. The impact of the disease, which was found in June on “most winter wheat varieties” in Britain has yet to be determined.