How climate change is affecting farming in Michigan
Tim Boring knew it wasn’t a normal drought when the fields on his Stockbridge farm started to dry up during the summer of 2012.Nobody escaped the magnitude of heat and dryness that year. Certainly not farmers.“That drought impacted everyone,” said Boring, who produces corn, soybeans and wheat at his family-owned O’Brien Farms when he isn’t working his job as Michigan Soybean Promotion Committee research director. “It was certainly one of our biggest cases of severe weather lately.”The drought wiped out a variety of crops, from corn to soybeans, and sent crop prices surging. Pictures of dried up, fractured grounds, stained corn leaves and livestock agonizing under the extreme heat were inescapable.The dry conditions finally faded away, but not before earning the mark of the worst drought in a nearly a quarter-century, according to the Michigan State University Extension.Severe weather events such as these, some experts and farmers worry, are on the rise.Some argue it’s the natural variability that comes with farming, with continually changing severe weather events and an ever-evolving, utterly unpredictable climate.Others say it’s a bigger issue: an issue of climate change.Where does this leave Michigan agriculture for not just this year or next, but for the next generation? The answer is foggy.What's really happening?Bring up the issue of climate change at the dinner table, and chances are you’ll get served with a variety of differing, heated views. The same is true in the fields.“There’s still a lot of skepticism in the farming community over how big of an issue climate change really is or if it’s happening at all,” Boring said. “I think you see a lot of guys struggling to figure out really what’s going on and looking for answers on it, because there’s so much conflicting information.”While a common conception of climate change is sharply rising temperatures, Boring said climate change is really about a gradual warming. In fact, the most damaging aspect of climate change is how this subtle rise in temperature may increase risk factors for extreme weather events such as more intense hurricanes, heavier rainfall, droughts and heat waves.“It’s not so much that temperatures are going to go from 71 degrees to 72 degrees, but I think the bigger issue is more of the variability in weather patterns and more prolonged periods of drought or really rainy seasons,” Boring explained. “There’s a lot more variability, and that’s something I think we’ve seen over the last few years.”Jeffrey Andresen agrees. The professor at Michigan State University’s Department of Geography and the state climatologist for Michigan says big swings in weather patterns are the real crop killers.“In general, we tend to see that most of the impacts on our agricultural systems are associated with severe events: drought, hailstorm, flooding,” Andresen said.That doesn’t mean swelling temperatures aren’t a factor.Michigan effectThe U.S. average temperature has risen by more than 2 degrees Fahrenheit over the past 50 years and is expected to continue rising, according to projections from the U.S. Global Change Research Program.Seasonal warm-up and transition from winter to summer is happening one to two weeks earlier now than it did three or four decades ago, Andresen says.The gradual warming has benefits for Michigan in particular.“If you look at the next several decades, most of the research suggests at least temporary benefits to some agricultural systems in the Great Lakes system,” Andresen said.One positive, especially for Northern Michigan, is a longer growing season. That means the potential to grow more long-season crops such as peppers and tomatoes. Other crops, such as soybeans and corn, could be planted farther north than before.But that longer growing season isn’t great for some other crops.“For some of the fruit industry, the trend towards earlier springs has been negative for tree fruits such as apples, cherries and peaches, because it brings an earlier warm-up,” Andresen said.The earlier warm-up leaves fruit crops more susceptible to late spring frosts.That’s what happened with Michigan’s apple crops last year. Just 3 million bushels were harvested in 2012, according to the Michigan Apple Committee, compared to the 20 million to 23 million bushels in a typical year. It was the biggest apple crop loss since the 1940s.In Michigan and beyond, looking long-term, if the changes are as large as climate experts project, effects would be negative, Andresen says.His comments echo a report under development by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, leaked last month.According to the draft report, scientists concluded that higher temperatures will benefit crops in some places, but that globally they will make it more difficult for crops to flourish, with the danger of reducing production by as much as 2 percent each decade for the remaining part of this century.“Ultimately, when we have to change many times, it requires new investments, new money, new infrastructure,” Andresen added, “and there’s always an economic impact.”Pests, weeds and disease on the riseMilder winters mean pests that once weren’t an issue because Michigan’s frigid months were inhospitable are now more challenging.“There are certainly new, exotic species that are here and have been introduced, some due to our global commerce or other factors, not climate, but they can survive because of climate,” Andresen said.One example is the corn flea beetle, a shiny black insect, just a sixteenth of an inch long, a killer for corn crops, spreading the bacterium that causes leaf blight and Stewart’s bacterial wilt.“It’s a pest that’s been here a long time and it does not do well in cold winters, so we know that with mild winters, these insects are much more prevalent,” Andresen said. “When their numbers are up, we have much more diseased corn than in other years.”A relatively new pest is the Asian longhorn beetle, an exotic insect endangering a wide assortment of hardwood trees in North America.“This insect can not only survive but thrive here, because it has few or no natural enemies, because it’s so new,” Andresen said. “These so-called exotic species can cause a lot of trouble in a short time after they’re introduced.”Climate change is also helping those oh-so pesky weeds. According to a study conducted last month by Cornell University, weeds are expanding to northern latitudes, thanks to rising temperatures.In the study, Antonio DiTommaso, a weed ecologist and Cornell professor in the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, cites Johnsongrass, a grass weed which reduces yields in corn, soybeans, cotton and a number other crops, as an example.“This is a species that when I got to Cornell about 12 years ago, I was told it would not survive a winter in Ithaca,” he said. “It is over 12 years. It has survived. This is more characteristic. It’s really problematic in the Mid-Atlantic and South. It is one that some of our own research has shown that is projected with climate change to become a serious economic weed in New York State and Pennsylvania and so forth.”How farmers are actingKen Blight runs Blight Farms Inc. in Albion with his brother Art, niece Afton and nephew Stan, where he raises hogs and cattle and grows corn, soybeans and wheat.Even though Blight, 53, says he hasn’t seen an extreme change in weather patterns over his lifetime, he and his fellow farmers have gotten better at preparing for severe weather events.“A lot of farms have installed waterways in their hollows, so that runoff isn’t nearly the issue that it used to be,” said Blight, who graduated with an animal science degree from Michigan State University. “If you have a hillside where water might flow into a hollow in several directions, we sod that down and plant some kind of grass.”Other farmers are employing no-till practices.“Instead of plowing like you did in the old days where you’d leave the top of the ground barren, now we can spray Roundup on there and leave the soil undisturbed,” Andresen said.Another trend is frost protection, especially for fragile fruit crops.“We’re seeing wind machines that stir up the air around orchards and help protect during freeze events in the spring,” Andresen said.Andresen is also seeing increased irrigation on Michigan farms.“If you’re irrigated,” he explained, “you’ve drastically reduced the risk of (drought).”And farmers are doing a better job of rotating the crops they plant in fields to keep harvests vibrant.“More and more farmers are interested in healthy soil, cover crops and better rotations,” Boring said.Cover crops are non-yielding crops that help nourish the soil.It’s all a result of a tough reality for farmers.“Farmers already know how to adapt to changing situations,” Andresen said. “If they don’t, they may not remain economically competitive.”Regardless of the climate change debate, farmers are changing the way they handle severe weather with economic viability in mind.“I think they associate it with improving their agronomic management,” Boring said. “If we really are entering into this period where climate change is driving a lot more extremes, or if it’s just a better way to manage unpredictable weather, those are the things that are going to make a difference.”Andresen added, “Farmers are very keen observers. They have to be, based on what they do and how they earn a living, and I think farmers and are taking the steps to stay viable and fruitful.”Source - http://www.battlecreekenquirer.com/