U.K. Farmers Face Seed Shortage as Spring Planting Set to Surge

Farmers in the U.K. are facing a shortage of seeds as planting of spring crops is set to surge, after record rainfall last year in England muddied fields and left less land available to be sown with winter crops.

Farmers are paying about 30 percent more than usual for spring seeds as rising demand has led to shortages of domestic supplies and spurred an increase of imports, said David Neale, a business development manager at Andoversford, England-based farm adviser Agrii. As much as 20 percent of U.K. fields intended for winter crops including wheat and rapeseed last autumn went unplanted because of excess rain, leaving that ground now available to be sown with oilseed and grain, he said.