Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, parts of Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire, and west Norfolk are still in drought.
Leicestershire, Warwickshire and Shropshire are also particularly dry. 
The Anglian water company has applied for two drought permits from the Environment Agency. One will take water from the River Nene to fill Pitsford reservoir in Northamptonshire. A second will use water from the River Nene to refill Rutland reservoir.

This Christmas, it is between 25 and 30 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than this time last year and the water table is still very low and will take a lot to rectify it.

Forecasts of a poor harvest shouldn’t dampen enthusiasm in the arable sector, two leading banks said at Cereals.

HSBC and Lloyds both said they would work with farmers who suffer from cash flow problems if the predicted yields prove to be accurate.

Lloyds’ agriculture director Gareth Oakley said: 
“The long term prospects for UK cereals growers are still positive. There is pressure on grain stocks. Demand is strong and increasing in the UK and across the world, but higher input prices and the effects of drought earlier this year may put short-term pressure on cash flows. There may be particular problems for growers who committed to sell large volumes of their crops forward. If they do not grow enough grain then they may be forced to buy in expensive stocks to cover their commitments.”

Next year’s fertiliser prices are expected to be in excess of £300/tonne for ammonium nitrate and many cereal yields in the east and south of the country could be more than 10 per cent down, according to forecasts.

The last 12 months made up Britain’s second-warmest year since records began, the Met Office has said. 

They included the warmest April and Spring on record - and the second warmest Autumn. The highest single-day temperature for October was also broken, with Gravesend in Kent notching up 29.9 degrees on October 1, beating the previous record of 29.4 set at March in Cambridgeshire in 1985.

The top temperature of the year was 33.1 degrees on 27 June at Gravesend. Britain's hottest-ever mark came in 2003, again in Gravesend, when 38.1 degrees was reached.

All of the UK's top seven warmest years have happened in the last decade.

• The Met Office also noted ‘marked variations in rainfall’.
  Scotland had its wettest year since records began, but some parts of England have had very low levels of rainfall. East Anglia had its second driest year on record and the Midlands its third driest.
   
• Water watch: On 23 December, the government granted a drought order to South East Water to help it protect Ardingly reservoir in Sussex after water levels dropped to 12% by the end of November. The water company said an "exceptionally dry" September, October and November had "raised the urgency of the situation".
   
• Temperatures in December have been close to average overall, despite many reports of Spring-like phenomena. The mean temperature was 4.7 degrees Celsius (40.5 degrees Fahrenheit), 0.5 above the 1971-2000 average.

The leading rural insurer has reported a two-and-a-half times increase in livestock rustling during 2011.  

Based on its claims data, NFU Mutual estimates more than 60,000 sheep could have been stolen between January and October. Its analysts say livestock theft is costing UK farmers at least £6 million a year.

They have tracked an upwards trend since the low levels of rustling around 2000, when farm thieves predominantly targeted quad bikes, tractors and power tools.

The Mutual says strong meat prices could be behind the resurgence, drawing parallels with the recent spikes in stolen copper and diesel.

Farmers are now being encouraged to do more to prevent the growing problem, which has proved particularly problematic in Wales and South West and North East England.

Farmers and butchers are being advised to check livestock records and ear tags to make sure they are not buying stolen animals.

Other advice includes:

Padlocking gates to fields
Making sure stock is marked and records kept up-to-date
Grazing sheep away from roads, if possible
Joining a FarmWatch scheme.