Farmers look for creative ways around mud

This past April was the second wettest on record in Connecticut. Farmers of all stripes have been contending with saturated land, unseasonably cool soil temperatures and wet leaves.

According to University of  Connecticut (UConn) Extension educator Shuresh Ghimere, “Planting has been delayed because growers could not get in with their equipment. Farmers across the state have been experiencing soil erosion and compaction on fields and access roads due to high rainfall. Plant growth has been slow.” 

The long, sunny days of late May offered some relief to many who had spent weeks watching wet plants sit still on cloudy days, vulnerable to disease and barely growing. The ground is still very wet as rain continues to pop up here and there, but longer reprieves between rain events have been welcome.

Why the rain hurts farms

For farmers in our region, spring is a game of finding windows of just-right weather. You check the forecast, review your task list, and try to puzzle the two together. You’ve got piles of expensive seed sitting around that, if planted into too-cool and too-wet soil, will rot before sprouting. 

If seed goes unplanted by a certain date, plants won’t have time to grow to full maturity before autumn frost. If the dry windows don’t appear, you go ahead and plant anyway — with your tires making deep ruts in the fields and causing long-term erosion and compaction. 

UConn land-use specialist Kip Kolesinskas has been hearing reports from growers similar to those collected by Ghimere. “Because of the rain delays, people took a chance and planted despite cool, wet conditions. A good deal of seed rotted in the ground so some stuff might be later coming into the market.”

Last winter’s impact

With the seven day forecast feeling as pressing as it does to farmers, it’s hard to remember that the conditions of the previous season bear a good deal of relevance as well. 

Kolesinskas explained, “Going into winter, our soil profiles were full of water after last fall’s heavy precipitation. Coming out of a two year drought, the autumn rain had been welcome — up until it made harvest difficult. 

“People who went in and had to harvest, especially dairy folks, really rutted up their fields and then the tire tracks caused preferential flow paths for water. All of the spring rain [compounded these issues and] caused quite a bit of erosion.”

Corn, machines, feed

East Canaan dairy farmer Ben Freund echoed Kolesinskas’ generalized description as being true of local conditions. 

“The amount of rain has caused us to lose several weeks of production. The corn is getting planted later than optimum, which will affect yield and quality. There is an increased chance of it not reaching maturity before cold weather kills the crop. 

“The grass harvest is also affected. We continue to lose quality as the grass heads out, meaning dramatically less protein and energy available to our livestock in the harvested crop [of hay]. 

“Additionally, as we are forced to run on saturated fields on the occasional sunny day, this compacts the surface, causing long lasting damage to the fragile soils. We have increased wear and tear on equipment in these wet conditions bringing increased costs. Combined with the long downturn in dairy prices, this is becoming a particularly difficult season.”

While the gloomy weather has created huge long term challenges, Ghimere added a bit of light, “Some farms with good drainage [e.g. sandy soil, sloping land] are less affected by the wet weather. Some farmers utilized season extension techniques — using high tunnels, low tunnels, row covers and deep zone tillage to encourage water infiltration.”

Signs of climate change

Millerton flower grower Lolly Schroeder said, “This weather moves the climate change conversation front and center.” She has taken a no-till approach wherever possible and uses high tunnels to avoid extreme weather events.

“As we know there is a difference between climate and weather,” said Kolesinskas, explaining that while no single weather event can be directly attributed to climate change, the overall warmer climate means that when we do get precipitation it tends to be more extreme, as we are experiencing this spring. He went on to say that the most predictable effect of climate change for the future of our region is that weather patterns will be increasingly intense and unpredictable.

Each has its own needs

Farmers are used to focusing their energy on crops suited to the weather that is common to their farms and controlling for factors within a certain range of variability. 

Each crop grown in our region — be it soy beans, salad greens, or strawberries — thrives in a particular set of conditions. The field corn that livestock farmers rely on for animal feed requires 60 degree soil to sprout, three and a half months of frost-free weather to grow and dry conditions at harvest. 

Apple trees require frost-free weather after their blossoms appear in spring, a healthy population of bees, low humidity to prevent fungal disease and cold winters to reduce pest populations. 

While farmers are nothing if not adaptable, there is only so much they can do to create their crops’ preferred conditions in the face of high unpredictability.

“For every management decision farmers are making, they have to be thinking of climate change adaptation strategies,” said Kolesinskas. 

This spring, many growers are trying to make the right short term decisions for their crops while trying to calculate how to invest in the right equipment, crops and infrastructure for future unpredictability. 

“The most successful adaptations have been costly to many farmers,” Kolesinskas said. 

Not just farmers

These challenges are relevant to anyone who makes a living outdoors, not just farmers. Logger Jay Wolfe said that he has been able to work consistently this spring, despite the mud, because he invested in expensive new machinery that can haul logs no matter the conditions on the ground. 

He said that, historically, loggers in our region relied on long winters of frozen ground to do the work, but it has been decades since that type of logging was possible. 

After spending his career getting mudded out, Wolfe is happy to be able to work around the weather this year but is concerned about the expense of maintaining such big capital investments.

Pest changes

The increased mildness of area winters is having an effect on farmers too. 

“Temperatures were so mild this winter that many vegetable growers were harvesting fall-planted crops in unheated tunnels throughout,” Kolesinskas said. 

While it helps for farmers to have sources of winter income, there are drawbacks to the warmer winters too. 

“We’ll see in the crop season how the pest pressure is.” 

Many pests that traditionally died during the cold winters are surviving, attacking crops earlier in the season.

The national weather service is predicting a 50% chance of greater-than-average precipitation for the rest of the growing season. Thus, the only certainty this season is that farmers will need to continue to rely on their wily natures and do their best to adapt to the unknown ahead.

Janna Siller runs the Adamah vegetable farm, a CSA in Falls Village with pick-up at the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center.