International grazing expert John Bailey spoke at the "Out in the Drought East" event at Old Hall Farm in Woodton, near Bungay, which discussed how to boost the resilience of grazing land in a changing climate.

This summer's record-breaking heat and drought have left farmers struggling to maintain grass growth, with many forced to start using winter forage reserves months earlier than planned.

But potential mitigation strategies were put forward by Mr Bailey, a retired stock manager and consultant with nearly 50 years of grazing management experience across Scotland, the French Pyrenees and Alps, and New Zealand.

Grazing expert John Bailey led a workshop at Old Hall Farm, near Bungay, explaining how livestock farmers can manage their pastures to cope better with drought (Image: Sonya Duncan)

With extreme heat becoming increasingly likely, he urged farmers to be "serene with change" because "waiting is not survivable".

"You need to understand where this could be going," he said. "I don't think anybody will be able to farm the way the used to farm. There is going to be too much heat stress and appetite loss in the animals to simply hope for things just running the way they used to run."

He outlined the principles of a "summer dry grazing system" he learned in New Zealand, which has since been adopted by hundreds of farmers in France -........

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