How farmers are combatting climate troubles

Farmers, such as Martin Larsen from Byron, Minnesota, are adapting their growing practices amid extreme weather events. If they don’t, they may lose their land — and their livelihoods — forever.

“There are costs to our soils. Due to the increased run- off events, soil erosion has increased exponentially,” Larsen submitted in written testimony for a Senate Budget Committee hearing on climate in June. “The continued loss of fertile soil from farmland will decrease its future productivity, and unfortunately make the land less able to soak up the increasing amounts of heavy rains.”

High-intensity rainfall events separated by longer periods of drought have become more common across the Midwest.

“Historically, the potential for 4 or more inches over 24 hours is 0.01% over the last 20 to 30 years,” says Justin Gilsan, Iowa’s state climatologist. “We’ve tripled that probability. Those heavy, heavy rainfall events are im- portant because you get runoff events, especially over agricultural fields.”

Understanding climate vs. weather

The difference between climate and weather is simple: Weather is the highly variable day-to-day environment involving temperature, precipitation, and wind speed. Climate is the average of those weather patterns, commonly broken into 30-year periods for study.

“That 30-year average is what we call climatology, and it is important because it gives us a baseline to rank events,” Gilsan says. “All that climate information is a conglomeration and an accumulation of weather at a specific station. Then we are able to pull out trends from the statistical information from the accumulation of weather records.”

Rising atmospheric temperatures

While climate change has become a highly politicized issue, the science is clear: Increased greenhouse gases in the atmosphere raise temperatures.

“Greenhouse gases are what keeps our atmosphere warm, but without them, we don’t have a planet that we can live on,” says Eric Snodgrass, senior science fellow for Nutrien Ag Solutions. “If we increase their concentrations, there will naturally be a warming of our whole atmosphere. And that warming has different effects in different places.”

The process is similar to a car sitting in a parking lot in the summer, Gilsan says.

“You have solar radiation or sunlight going into that car and the car traps it. The outgoing radiation can’t get out, so it warms up the car,” Gilsan says. “The atmosphere acts as a fluid envelope on the Earth. When you have CO2 emissions, from various processes such as burning fossil fuels, that can’t escape the atmosphere, it increases the atmospheric temperature by what we call radiative forcing.”

Current Trends

Rising atmospheric temperatures allow the atmosphere to hold more water vapor. In turn, more water vapor needs to build for a rainfall event, making those events more intense and increasing the length of time between them.

“With more water vapor available in the atmosphere, it takes more water vapor loading to produce a precipitation event,” Gilsan says. “In summertime when we’re having thunderstorm-driven rainfalls, it takes more water vapor in the atmosphere to produce an event.”

Historically, 89% of summer rainfall events saw less than 1 inch of precipitation over 24 hours. With increased water vapor in the atmosphere, higher-intensity events are happening more frequently, Gilsan says.

Diversifying climate resilience

Larsen and his family have farmed near Byron, Minnesota, in some capacity for seven generations. The farm has been 100% no-till for nearly 10 years, with a rotation of corn, soybeans, and, more recently, small grains, including food-grade oats and barley.

The 700-acre farm has experienced extreme weather events over the past 16 years. This was first noticed when endless rain and record flooding hit the area in August 2007, Larsen noted in written testimony to the U.S. Senate Budget Committee hearing for climate-related costs of the agriculture sector. From 1973 to 2021, Minnesota saw 16 mega-rain events, with 11 occurring in the most recent 22 years. That’s compared to just five in the previous 27 years, according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

Since 2007, Larsen’s farm has withstood multiple extreme rainfall events receiving 2 inches of rain in less than an hour, sometimes in less than 20 minutes. This rainfall damages soil and increases erosion, Larsen says. It’s not just rain causing destruction to his farm, however. This year he experienced a mega drought — going 47 days without rain.

“There’s some corn around here that’s a total loss,” says Larsen. “It’s already been adjusted from crop insurance, but what does that cost society? No one wants to farm for a crop insurance payment.”

Adding drought-resistant small grains to his operation has helped diversify that risk, allowing him to maintain profitability through unpredictable extreme weather. Larsen says his oat yield will average just under 130 bushels per acre, likely more than what he will yield on some of his drought-damaged corn.

Larsen adopted no-till practices over the course of three years, starting in 2013, to reduce the amount of soil shifted in rain events. Now, small grains and legume cover crops provide a strong root system to protect the soil. He also grows clover on about 230 acres to protect soil, with the added benefit of providing a feed source for livestock.

“That’s resilience, that’s profitability, and that’s longevity because you’re building the soil, staying in business, and making money in all of it,” Larsen says.

Larsen is part of a network of about 75 local farmers, representing roughly 25,000 to 30,000 total acres in the Byron area, who share knowledge about no-till, cover crops, diversifying crops, nitrate, water quality, and carbon sequestration with the goal of building farm resiliency.

“There are farms here that if they continue to erode at the pace they are right now, they will not be farmable in less than 50 years,” says Larsen. “There will not be any productivity left on that farm because there will not be any topsoil left. You’ll be farming bedrock or subsoil.”

Drainage water recycling

Like Larsen, many farmers in Iowa are also looking to improve field drainage by implementing more no-till and cover crop practices, says Meaghan Anderson, a field agronomist at Iowa State University.

“These practices can improve water-holding capacity in fields, but they also improve internal drainage, allowing excess water to be drained faster,” says Anderson. “Many farmers are using more tile as well to help shed excess water.”

An emerging practice is drainage water recycling (DWR), which can improve yields and water quality, according to ongoing research at the Iowa Nutrient Research Center (INRC) and the Iowa Soybean Association.

• READ MORE: Tiling to cope with extreme wet weather

DWR is designed to capture water during periods of heavy rainfall to be used for irrigation later during times of drought. Research done in other states has shown this to provide a yield boost of up to 50% for corn and 30% for soybeans, with potential for significant yield gains in dry years, according to Chris Hay, senior research scientist at the Iowa Soybean Association. This practice can also benefit water quality and local wildlife by capturing water with high concentrations of nitrate and phosphorus before it leaves the field.

A DWR system can have a high upfront cost, but that will likely be offset by long-term yield increases and payments for public benefits. A DWR system requires a number of components before a farmer can start collecting water. If a farmer doesn’t already have a drainage site, pond construction may take up 5% to 10% of a field and typically costs between $1,000 and $3,000 per acre-foot. If gravity flow isn’t possible, a pump system will be required to move water to the pond. An irrigation system will also be required to distribute water.

The Evaluating Drainage Water Recycling Decisions (EDWRD) tool can provide an estimate of potential benefits to a farm from capturing drainage water and evaluate multiple factors such as reservoir size, crop, soil type, and management. For more information, visit transformingdrainage.org.

Prairie strips

Richard Sloan and his wife, Diana, own 520 acres in Buchanan County, Iowa, where they work to make their farm more resilient to extreme weather fluctuations. The land is entirely no-till, rotating on two years of corn and one on soybeans. They grow small grains on 20 acres — rye, wheat, and winter barley — using the grain for cover crops on the rest.

In the mid-2000s, Sloan was active in a farmer-led watershed group that experimented with tillage and different crop rotations, working with the Soil Conditioning Index to understand how to incorporate more organic matter in the soil. While attending a talk at the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University (ISU), Sloan was introduced to the concept of prairie strips.

Based on 15 years of research, ISU has found prairie strips provide “disproportionate benefits,” says Tim Youngquist, farmer liaison for the prairie strips program at ISU. These small strips of land are capable of reducing soil erosion and creating habitat for birds, pollinators, and other insects.

They also greatly reduce the amount of phosphorus and nitrogen exported off the property and into local water sources, thereby reducing harmful algal bloom. By strategically converting 10% of a field into prairie strips, farmers can reduce soil movement off their field by 95%, phosphorus runoff by 90%, and nitrogen runoff by 85%, according to ISU research.

“I know with full certainty, if there were more prairie acres in Iowa, it would be a better place,” says Youngquist. “We would have cleaner water, the best soil in the world, and we’d have more habitat for these creatures that we share the state with.”

Farmers can get started with prairie strips by working with the USDA’s Clean Lakes, Estuaries, and Rivers Initiative through the CP-43 practice under the Conservation Reserve Program.

In addition to the natural benefits, farmers in the program can receive 10 to 15 years of annual rental payments and up to 50% of cost-share for the practice. Those who enroll through CP-43 will also receive a 5% practice incentive payment and a sign-up payment equal to 32.5% of the first full year’s annual rental payment.

This doesn’t have to disrupt work in the field either; farmers in the CP-43 program can make end row turns in the prairie strip area.

• READ MORE: How to turn unproductive field areas into pollinator havens

Sloan converted 4.5 acres of his land into prairie strips, with each strip at the minimum required 30-foot width for CP-43. He chose a contoured field where he could easily walk the prairie for maintenance and enjoyment. “I could make more money growing 4 1⁄2 acres more corn,” says Sloan, “but I see a lot of value in protecting habitat for many species of birds, beetles, pollinators, and beneficial arthropods.”

Growing prairie strips is not an overnight project. It takes at least three years for the improvements to start looking like a prairie. During the first year, mowing is required to give prairie species a competitive advantage over annual weeds. More species will emerge in the second year, and unless there is pressure from weeds, mowing won’t be required. From the third year on, the area will look like native prairie grass, with minimal spot herbicide application, scouting for woody species, or prescribed burning as needed.

Youngquist appreciates the flexibility of the CP-43 program. “It’s not trying to stick so close to the contour that it’s unfarmable. It’s just finding opportunities to get more habitat on the landscape.”

For more information about prairie strips, visit prairiestrips.org. For more about how to enroll in the CP-43 program, contact your local service center and USDA Farm Service Agency office at farmers.gov/service-locator.