Farmers Weekly highlights some of the key events that shaped 2010. Here we talk about how arable growers have seen wheat prices climb, but livestock farmers have struggled with fodder shortages.

Concerns over forage shortages started to mount as the UK endured one of its driest spells for 100 years.

In the first half of the year, just 358mm of rain on average fell across the country – 70% of normal. Silage crops struggled to bulk up and output fell by up to 40%, while hay yields were halved in many areas.

Faced with falling beef prices and struggling milk values, some farmers cut stock numbers rather than face a second consecutive winter of high feed prices. And many sheep farmers struggled to finish lamb crops on previously scorched pastures.

Straw prices shot up on the back of tight forage supplies, hitting up to £100/acre. That, coupled with rocketing grain prices, did little to ease the pressure.

But for arable farmers with wheat left to sell, it was all good news, helping to offset lower yields. The barometer feed wheat price, which had struggled to break through the £100/t barrier for months, took off in June, and January futures hit £180/t at the end of November.

It started in June, ironically due to wet weather harvest worries across Western Europe. The effect of winter kill in Ukraine and of delayed Canadian drilling were also becoming clear.

Such concerns, together with heightened investment fund activity, continued to fuel the market. And worries of widespread drought in Eastern Europe and beyond were confirmed in early August when Russia introduced a season-long export ban.

Ex-farm prices topped £150/t. Further tightening of world grain and maize supplies supported global markets, with the UK’s rush of exports adding domestic support. By early December, Farmers Weekly’s average ex-farm feed wheat price had hit £178/t.