Tag Archive: cover crops


Cover Crops for Climate Smart Farming

Filed Under: climate change adaptation by farmclim — Leave a comment
October 25, 2017

With 100 acres in production and 200 acres in cover crops, Pete’s Greens in Craftsbury, Vermont invests almost more time in managing their cover crops aka “green manures” than they do their marketable crops.  But climate smart farming means caring for soils, keeping carbon in the soil (not the air) where organic matter is a key factor in the production of quality crops.

As farm manager Isaac explains, “This takes a ton of time – we spend a lot of time dealing with our cover crops. You sort of think you plant it and away you go and you come back two years later. Planting soil into sod and getting the sod to die off before you go back into production is really difficult; it’s machinery intensive. So we’ve been doing multiple cover crops on different fields over two seasons. This is our third planting of oats on this field this year so we took straw off of these fields twice and that’s for mulching.”  Isaac uses about 300 lbs of seeds per acre to get the density of oats he wants for green manures.

As soil guru Fred Magdoff confirms in his book Building Soils for Better Crops, “It’s not easy .. Improving organic matter content requires a sustained effort that includes a number of approaches to return organic materials to soils and minimize soil organic matter losses…  All practices that help to build organic matter do at least one of two things – add more organic materials than was done in the past or decrease the rate of organic matter loss from soils.”   Knowing your soil types and rates of aeration and importantly, your starting point for percentage of organic matter will let you know whether your farm is on the trajectory for climate smart farming.

 

 

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Adapting Farm Management to a Changing Climate – Butterworks Farm, Vermont

Filed Under: climate change adaptation, dought, water management by farmclim — Leave a comment
July 6, 2017

Butterworks Farm is one of Vermont’s oldest certified organic dairy farms, and has a strong reputation for growing some of the finest organic grains in the state. The farm building complex and surrounding fields are situated on gently sloping fields near the border of Canada. A herd of Jersey cows produces milk which is processed on site into yogurt, kefir and rich Jersey cream for direct and wholesale markets.

Jersey cows, Butterworks Farm, photo credit: Suzy Hodgson, UVM Extension

Butterworks Farm leases and owns additional parcels in the surrounding area, including some floodplain fields. The farm has grown a diversity of whole and milled grains for regional markets, and animal feed and is currently transitioning to a 100% grassfed operation with a bedded pack system. Alissa White visited Butterworks in early April 2017 to talk to Jack Lazor about how he manages his production with the impacts of climate change in mind.

Climate Vulnerabilities

Regional climate change projections predict agriculture in the northeastern US will experience a variety of direct weather impacts, and indirect impacts as a result of climate change. For Butterworks Farm in northern Vermont, the site-specific vulnerabilities of climate change encompass potentially both direct and indirect climate change impacts.

Butterworks Farm. Photo credit: S. Hodgson, UVM Extension

Direct Climate Change Impacts

  • Warmer temperatures overall,
  • Longer warmer growing seasons,
  • Precipitation increases,
  • Extreme precipitation events,
  • Increased flood damage and erosion,
  • Severe wind and storm hazards,
  • Elevated atmospheric CO2,
  • Increased potential for drought.

Indirect climate change impacts lead to increases in:

  • Weed competition and invasive species,
  • Populations of damaging insects,
  • Incidence of plant pathogens,
  • Livestock heat stress, and
  • Pressure from pathogens and parasites of livestock.

Adapted from Janowiak et al 2016 and Tobin et al 2015

Management goals

Jack and his family balance many goals and challenges when making decisions about managing their farm. Climate concerns fall into both short and long-term decision making at Butterworks, but at the forefront of farm decision making for their family at this time are long-term financial solvency and near-term intergenerational transfer of ownership. Climate change considerations are important, but auxillary to day-to-day management and long-term planning.

How do we manage climate change and weather-related risks at the field scale?

Jack implements a number of practices on the field, specifically, managing for flooding and controlling soil erosion.  He has transitioned land which is particularly prone to flooding from grain production into permanent forage. “We’ve been farming this floodplain property for 20 years…Increased incidence of high water… could come any month of the year now… Then we only loose one cut out of three if there’s high water.” In previous years, the farm has used underseeding cover crops to limit erosion from high intensity rain events.

“We’ve been farming this floodplain property for 20 years… high water… could come any month of the year now…”

Jack Lazar, Butterworks Farm. Photo credit: Suzy Hodgson, UVM Extension

Jack attributes many benefits to crop rotations, including some that are directly associated with climate risks. His goal is to do less with tillage in all fields because he sees evidence of better soil quality and healthier plants without tillage.  By minimizing tillage and keeping roots in the ground, he maintains soil health with organic matter of 8-9%.

At the field scale, Jack is focused on increasing soil health to buffer the impacts of drought, flooding and extreme precipitation. Cover crops are planted to help hold soil from erosive forces, and land which is particularly flood prone is being transitioned into perennial forages to protect soil.

Building soil biological health and organic matter levels has multiple benefits for the farm.  Jack sees the soil health reflected in the plant growth, and in turn the health of his farm’s Jersey cows.  Increased organic matter limits the damage of extreme precipitation and holds moisture in times of drought.  In response to 2016 summer drought, Jack relied upon increasing his land base for forages and maintaining good rotational grazing practices.  In contrast, grain production has been challenging financially as it’s prone to disease during wet summers and storm events. Overall, the farm’s trajectory is towards perennial forages and away from grain production.

Contributing Author: Alissa White, Research Specialist, Agroecology Livelihoods Collaborative (ALC)
Department of Plant and Soil Science, University of Vermont
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When Politics Go Low, Farmers Go High

Filed Under: climate change adaptation, water management by farmclim — Leave a comment
December 19, 2016

While political discourse hit new lows this past year, concern for climate change hit an eight year high in 2016.

US concern for climate change

US concern for climate change

Whatever headwinds affect legislation in the new year, a number of localities, states, and organizations are taking action.

Already, 165+ jurisdictions have signed or endorsed the Under2 MOU. Together, this group including Vermont and our neighboring states, New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, 7 other states and five Canadian provinces among others, represents more than 1.08 billion people and $25.7 trillion in GDP, equivalent to more than a third of the global economy.

This global compact among cities, states and provinces aims to limit the increase in global average temperature to below two degrees Celsius.  The Under 2 MOU calls for parties to aim to increase energy efficiency and develop renewable energy and to collaborate on climate change adaption and resilience efforts, scientific assessments, communication and public participation.

It is in this spirit of collaboration, communication, and adaption that UVM Extension Center for Sustainable Agriculture partnered with the USDA Northeast Climate Hub produced three videos showing Northeast farmers talking about their farms and how they’re experiencing climate change and are adapting with cropping strategies, water management and soil protection practices which mitigate climate impacts and help them farm successfully.

 

This past fall, 51.2 percent of the Northeast experienced moderate to exceptional drought, the largest extent since 2002 in the 17-year USDM record. Vermont was 3.5 F degrees warmer than its 20th century average, and this past year was the 2nd warmest year on record. period. This past fall was drier than on average, 2.38 inches less rain that the 20th century average.

In Vermont, Andy Jones, Manager, Intervale Community Farm in Burlington, VT explains how he uses irrigation to maintain soil moisture. Andy talks about his strategies in managing water, whether too much as in the summer of Tropical Storm Irene in 2011 or not enough as in this past summer 2016. Andy shares his thoughts on seeding rates and timing for the cover crops which protect the Intervale’s’s soils and shows the equipment he uses.

In New Hampshire, Pooh Sprague of Edgewater Farm, explains that even though his farm location is within feet of the Connecticut River, in dry periods, there’s no guarantee that he’ll be able to access enough water for this crops.   With increasingly erratic weather in the CT river valley, Poo has increased his use of hoop houses to protect his crops and extend the growing season.

Farms aren’t built in a single person’s lifetime.

Not far from the Connecticut River, Upinngill Farm sits on a hillside overlooking the river valley. The second generation of farmers in the family, Sorrell grew up farming with her father and now has her own two children growing up on the farm.  She says, “farms aren’t built in a single person’s life lifetime.”

Farmers throughout the northeast are experiencing the effects of extreme weather due to climate change and are managing their farms with the resources they can find.    It’s at this community level that the Intervale Community, Edgewater, and Upinngill farms are doing their bit to adapt to the new normal of climate change.

 

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The new normal – planning for wetter & warmer

Filed Under: climate change adaptation, water management by farmclim — Leave a comment
March 28, 2016

Normal temperatures at the end of March in Burlinton, VT are typically in the mid 40s like today.  Over Easter weekend, it was 16 degrees warmer than normal. With the warmest winter on record, what does this mean for Vermont farmers?

Revisiting Tamarack Hollow Farm, I checked in with co-owner Amanda Andrews. How is your new location working out?

Our new farm was great last season and held up during the heavy spring rains while our old farm was flooding. That said, heavy rains continue to be a worry, and so we are planning with erosion in mind.

To control erosion, we are planting low-growing cover crops between beds, moving towards a permanent raised bed system. We also installed drainage tile in one field with heavier soils to ensure it dries out quickly, even with heavy storms.

Spring is coming early this year – did we even have winter?   How has this affected your plans? Any thoughts on pests and diseases?

greens in hoophouse intervale

“With the warm winter, we are expecting heavier pest and disease pressure, so we are planning to use more row covers to control insects – and the diseases they spread.”

“Certain vegetables (tomatoes, cucumbers), we are only growing in tunnels. I am growing additional varieties of greens this season, especially looking for heat and disease tolerance as the three month forecast looks like a warm spring and summer.”

 

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Managing soil health to manage water at Littlewood Farm

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May 13, 2015

Joey Klein has been farming organically at Littlewood Farm in the Winooski River Valley in Plainfield, VT for 20 years. He sells organic vegetables wholesale throughout the growing season, and 75% of his wholesale produce goes to Hunger Mountain Coop in Montpelier. In the spring, he also sells plant starts and pick-your-own strawberries.

 

Joey Klein, Source: montpelierbridge.com

Managing Water

Joey recommends paying attention to how land drains. He is fortunate to have both well-drained sandy loam and slow draining clay loam fields because he has to work with both wet and dry conditions. He is near the river so he has access to water, and this makes him a bit more climate change proof than farmers who don’t have a nearby source of water. He pumps a lot of water out of the river. He says that access to a good water source is a crucial consideration when shopping for a farm.

He has enough land that he doesn’t need to plant the whole area every year, and he crops less than half his land each year. In wet years, he has not been able to use the heavier land. In a dry summer, he can access the clay loam fields by mid-June and grow into the fall, but if it gets wet again in the fall, the plants will stick to the ground.

The sandy loam soils need to be managed carefully and not tilled too much. He rotates his crops, uses green manures – field peas, oats, winter rye, and vetch – and keeps a field in cover crops one year in every three. This reduces run off, keeps the soil organic matter high, and he needs only a small amount of chicken manure to supplement the green manures.

Climate Change

Joey has been thinking that the climate could tip, and a major change may not be far away. He says we will need to have local farms in production because people will want farmers for neighbors so they can live where their food is grown. He wants to prepare for this by using less fossil fuel and finding ways to have people work the land with horses.

Insects

Joey hasn’t noticed insects being any worse yet. He has some flea beetles, cucumber beetles, potato bugs, and in some years tarnish plant bugs, but they aren’t a big problem. He is dreading the possible arrival of the Swede midge that attacks the growing point of all brassicas and is currently in the Champlain Valley.

Benefits of Warming

Joey is glad to have warmer falls with a couple of extra growing weeks, and the springs aren’t as erratic as they used to be.

 

Catherine Lowther, PhD

Catherine is faculty in the Sustainability program, and Chair of the Sustainability Committee at Goddard College in Plainfield, VT.  We will be collaborating with her and her students on several blog posts during this project.  Many thanks for their contributions!   

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