Adaptive Farming: How the farmers of Worcester County are changing along with our climate

Iconic New England agriculture paints a picture of rolling hayfields, stone walls and antique barns filled with hay bales and a rusting red tractor. The farmer is aging, his animals are roaming the fields and there is a sign at the end of the road that reads “Eggs $3.” However, the realities farmers face today are much more complicated than that familiar imagery would suggest. Today they face vast uncertainties due, in large part, to our changing climate. How will farmers continue to produce a harvest when extreme weather events are more frequent and more severe and the growing season itself is shifting?

Impacts of climate change have led to drought, flooding, extreme temperatures and an increase in insect activity, called insect pressure, according to the farmers interviewed for this article: Kerri Green of Harvard, Matt Koziol of West Brookfield and Amanda Barker of Leicester.

In 2014, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) identified soil and water conservation to be effective strategies to both adapt to climate change and mitigate its future development. For farmers like Green, Koziol and Barker, caring for their soil and water resources is equally as important as caring for their crops, land and animals.

“Farmers have been at the mercy of Mother Nature since the dawn of agriculture, constantly having to adapt and mitigate on a daily basis, every season,” says Green, a fourth-generation fruit and vegetable farmer whose farm has suffered crop loss and infrastructure damage due to extreme weather events.

EXTREME TEMPERATURES

Green and her family grow on their hilltop property of Westward Orchards in Harvard. They sell their goods in their farm stand and through a community-supported agriculture (CSA) harvest subscription program. Apples, peaches, cherries, apricots, plums and more are meticulously cared for all year long to ensure a bountiful harvest in the summer and autumn months. According to Green, hilltops are ideal locations for orchards. The trees blossom in spring, often before the threat of frost has passed, and the higher in elevation they are, the lower the chance a killing frost will settle onto the delicate blooms.

On Valentine’s Day in 2016, however, overnight temperatures dropped to –16°F. Even though they were still dormant, the stone fruit blossoms could not survive temperatures so low. According to tree fruit experts at Cornell Cooperative Extension, 90% of farms in New England lost their stone fruit harvest that year. Green says they have learned to be prepared for such weather events and have support plans in place to help them recover when extremes strike. In this case, Westward Orchards was able to recover some of its financial losses because they had crop insurance.

TOO MUCH RAIN

Programs offered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) help to protect a crop from overly abundant rain and also can provide the water necessary during times of drought. Farms must be prepared for both situations, and state and federal programs exist solely for that purpose.

With support from these federal programs, Green has installed irrigation systems and high tunnels on her farm. While irrigation systems are used to transport water directly to the roots of a plant, thereby reducing water waste and increasing the efficiency, the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) which oversees the irrigation programs offered through the USDA says that “(h)igh tunnels protect plants from severe weather and allow farmers to extend their growing seasons.”

When planting their annual vegetable crops, Green and her family have made the task more efficient and sustainable through the use of additional tools. Water wheel transplanters, inter-row mulching and biodegradable mulch on raised bed structures all help to keep rainfall and irrigation in the soil and not running off down the fields, says Green.

Matt Koziol has been haying organic fields and raising cattle in West Brookfield for 10 years. During his relatively short career, he has experienced what the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) database identifies to be record-breaking occurrences of rain, drought and snow. The effects on his cattle and hay farm have taught him to always have a surplus of supplies on hand to maintain what Koziol describes as a “flexible business, where you don’t back yourself down a corner you can’t turn around in.”

Koziol explains that unlike fruits and vegetables, a hayfield requires at least three straight days of perfect weather in order to harvest: one day for cutting the crop, one for drying and the last for baling. Only through this process can Koziol reap feed-quality hay. If the hay is wet when it gets baled, it becomes bedding hay or silage—both important, yet not nearly as profitable for his business. This past June NOAA reported that Massachusetts experienced over 30 straight days of rain. There were periods of sun, and some rain was merely a drizzle, but when it comes to haying the slightest moisture turns feed hay into silage. Koziol has been building up his inventory of wet hay (silage) equipment, and when forced to choose between a wet harvest or no harvest, he had the right tools on hand so his over 400 acres of organic hay did not go to waste.

DROUGHT

When Massachusetts experienced a 48-week drought in 2016, hay farmers like Koziol were grateful to harvest even one cutting of hay where they usually get two or three per year. This reduced hay harvest led to a significant crisis forlivestock farmers who rely on local hay sources as feed and bedding for their animals, says Koziol. While Koziol was fortunate enough to have his own supply of hay, it was not enough to feed the 200 head of cattle he had at the time, and he was forced to sell roughly a quarter of his herd. Today, Koziol always maintains 10–15% more hay in storage than he needs to feed all his animals.

The drought also dried up wells, streams and ponds where farmers collect water for their animals, according to the National Integrated Drought Information System’s Northeast Drought Assessment of 2016. In response to the crisis, the USDA created an emergency fund where farmers could apply for a new well on their property. The response was so overwhelming that the waiting list quickly grew to a fourmonth waiting period, according to Koziol.

The flexibility of Koziol’s farm business has helped him adapt and overcome many issues over the past 10 years. “The most snow, the most rain, the most drought, I don’t know what’s left, and it makes you think differently. … I’m glad I have a chainsaw in my truck and a generator on my farm.”

INSECTS

The changing climate impacts more than the land and harvest of a farm. Every living thing, down to the insects, bacteria and fungi that also call the farm home, is impacted, according to the IPCC. The University of Massachusetts (UMass) Extension Services helps farmers track, identify and manage common and invasive pests while universities such as UMass and Cornell University research the effects and strategize management of pests to provide farmers with the best tools available to protect their crops.

New insect species that historically could not survive in this region have caused damage and financial stresses to the Massachusetts farming community and are now posing a challenge to Cotyledon Farm, Amanda Barker’s diversified organically grown herb and vegetable farm.

Barker is installing a high tunnel to protect an area from the increase in insects she is experiencing. According to the NRCS, high tunnels offer farmers a greater ability to control these pests. This tool, Barker hopes, will insulate a section of high-value crops from insect damage.

PART OF THE SOLUTION

Global forecasts indicate that climate change will pose serious threats to the future of farming as reported by the 2019 United Nations report on climate change. What is not as commonly reported, however, is that our farmers are also a part of the solution to climate change. The 2017 agricultural census reported that farmers steward over 95,000 acres of land in Worcester County and protect that land from being developed into retail centers, neighborhoods and manufacturing lots. Farmland is land minimally disturbed; its fertility is cared for and its plant life maintained.

If cropland is not cared for properly when extreme weather hits, it can lead to soil erosion, loss of soil fertility and soil compaction. Kate Gervais, soil conservationist with the Worcester County Conservation District, says that healthy soil will prevent erosion in times of wind, hold water in times of drought, improve drainage in times of flood and encourage biodiversity to naturally defend against insect pressures.

Whether they are caring for animals grown on fertile pastures or 30-year-old apple orchards, our Worcester County farmers are, first and foremost, soil farmers. Regardless of the crop or livestock they manage, they know that healthy soils not only produce a better harvest but also help to insulate their farms against the effect of our changing climate. They are on the front lines—it’s up to us to support their endeavors.

westwardorchards.com
cotyledonfarm.com
centralmassgrown.org

This story appeared in the Winter 2020 issue of Edible Worcester.