Your Cambridgeshire county NFU update

Rory Kerr

Cambridgeshire County Adviser

NFU Cambridgeshire County Adviser Update – July 2026

It is with great sadness that I announce this will be my final County Voice. My last day at the NFU will be the 21 August. Thank you to all of you who have supported me throughout my time at the NFU and I will be very sad to move on. I hope to see as many as I can of you in the future and please don’t hesitate to stop me if you see me around! In the meantime, please direct any questions or enquiries to your local Group Secretaries, the NFU East inbox or to NFU CallFirst.

Below is an update of activity over July, as well as some useful links.

Harvest Snapshot

The NFU has been working hard to collate data across the country of how harvest has been so far in terms of yields and quality across numerous crops. I know that many of you will be finished by now, so please try to take the time to fill out our survey to help us build an accurate picture of the region. This will help us with our lobbying efforts when it comes to pressing government for further support following the dry harvest we have had. Please follow this link for more information.

Dry Weather

In the last week of July, Defra announced that the majority of England are now officially in drought, including East Anglia. This is following the extreme dry weather and heat that we have experienced since the middle of May. For us in Cambridgeshire where lots are growing root crops and fresh produce, we are particularly at risk from abstraction cessations and irrigation restrictions. I encourage you all to be active within your abstraction groups and contact our Water Resource team if you have any questions. Furthermore, there is questions surrounding what will happen within agri-environmental schemes Please follow this link for the latest advice and information as well as our current lobbying asks.

Fire Safety

Drought and dry weather doesn’t only impact crop yields and quality. Paired with the extreme heat we have had, it has made everything tinder dry and at very real risk of catching fire. Please try to take as much precaution as possible when conducting field operations and have fire fighting equipment on hand where possible. Following the significant fire in Essex that unfortunately set fire to a building containing ammonium nitrate, it is encouraged that you contact the fire service to inform them of the location of fertiliser being stored and the quantity. For all of our fire safety and hot weather recommendations, please visit NFU Online.

I wish you all the best and I hope to see many of you in the future.

Local news

Fire prevention advice as hot weather continues

Farmers are being urged to help keep their land fire safe over the summer months with advice from Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service.

Fire crews have attended more than 100 fires involving farms over the last two years, with more than half occurring during the summer months.

Watch Commander Joe Gacon, from the Service’s Community Fire Safety team, said: “Farms are at a high risk of fire because there are often lots of combustible materials stored in or around agricultural buildings.

“Farms are also often in isolated locations, which may have poor water supply. This makes farms much more vulnerable to fire getting out of control, especially in summer when hot and dry weather increases the risk of wildfires spreading.”

Rural firefighting not only makes up one of the service’s biggest risks, but it also presents a significant challenge to get a water supply to an emergency incident.

The service has taken innovative approaches to mitigating this, such as adding a purpose-built connection coupling to every fire engine in the county, allowing them to access the farm’s water supply.

Watch Commander Gacon said: “It is not just water supplies that farmers can help with. Other resources, such as telehandlers, can be offered by the farm in an emergency. This information can be added to the data terminals in the fire engine so crews are aware of the extra things they might be able to use and access them quicker.”

Advice includes:

Download the What3words app to give a precise location to emergency services
Ensure your farm is clearly signposted and make sure you keep all access routes clear in case emergency vehicles need to access the site 
Always keep escape routes clear and free from rubbish or combustible materials 
Always carry a mobile phone in case you need to make an emergency call
Keep a list of useful telephone numbers with you
Plan ahead
Make sure everyone on the farm knows the fire plan 
Keep any firefighting equipment easily accessible and ensure everyone knows where it’s stored 
Ensure any firefighting equipment is serviced regularly to keep it in good working order 
Make sure you have an animal evacuation plan for your livestock in the event of a fire
Do not store flammable items near livestock.