Farmer warns rising feed costs will hit food prices

A farmer has warned food prices could rise as the agriculture sector continues to deal with the aftermath of last summer's drought.

The Met Office declared the summer of 2025 was the hottest since records began in 1884, which led to a drought being declared across the Midlands from July until December.

Oli Lee, a farmer from Slawston in South Leicestershire, said the dry weather led to a drastic reduction in the supply of silage - grass harvested and stored in the summer to feed livestock over winter.

He said the price of silage had risen drastically as a result, which would reduce the amount of food farmers supplied to supermarkets and in turn increase prices.

Lee, who runs the 400-acre farm with his wife and father-in-law, said: "It started around May time, we noticed it getting very dry.

"Our grass stopped growing and that's what we rely on to feed and graze our cattle and sheep."

He added his farm produced about a third of the grass it would usually expect over the summer and the dry conditions were so widespread, it made it harder to source feed from elsewhere.

"Because the drought and the weather extremes are hitting everybody, that product just isn't there," he said.

"The little bits of surplus people are able to acquire are obviously commanding very high prices, to the point where it's just not worth purchasing that feed.

"I keep doing daily budgets on how much feed we've got for this winter.

"If we have a decent spring, where we get animals back out on to the field, we'll probably just make it through, but we won't have any feed left at that point so it's cutting it very fine."

Lee, who is also chair of the NFU's Midlands Livestock Board, said: "As farmers, we're price takers so we have to sell our product onto the market at the price we're offered.

"But where the impact is felt is that supply will reduce, because we just can't supply as much because of these challenges and that's where shortages will occur and therefore food prices go up."

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