By Hannah Fawcett, farm conservation advisor, the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority:

THE two main topics of conversation I have heard over the last few months have been the coronavirus pandemic and the weather.

Both factors are impacting massively on farming and make any decision-making very difficult.

The Lunesdale Natural Flood Management (NFM) farmer group had planned to host its final meeting at the end of March with a discussion about how to take the group forward. However this, along with many other planned events, was abruptly cancelled.

The group has been funded by Natural England and has been working over the last three years, with a remit to look at NFM on individual farms and across the landscape. Over that time the group has met regularly and has discussed the pros and cons of different NFM options. We have had a lot of good discussion and some great field trips, both locally and away.

It is a shame that after such a good start we cannot carry on, especially when we saw farmers implementing measures on their own farms, whether that was good hedgerow management and soil aeration, or woodland creation and the installation of leaky woody dams.

In the future it would be great if the farmer group could continue in some format. However, it is always difficult to enthuse anyone about flooding measures when we are in a droughty period! Over the following months we will be looking at funding opportunities and possibilities of continuing – watch this space.

As a result of the coronavirus pandemic, the Department for the Environment, Food & Rural Affairs' consultation for the Environmental Land Management Scheme has been paused.

When it reopens it is vital that we all take a look and offer an opinion. This is a chance for people to shape the future of farming.

Lastly, it is fascinating to look at the rainfall and stream level data being captured by the University of Lancaster at a site above Sedbergh with several leaky woody dams. See it for yourself here with this shortened link: http://bitly.ws/8GFk.