Agriculture and, subsequently, farmers are really vulnerable to weather patterns, as the weather is the driving force in deciding how farmers operate and how crops perform. Therefore, navigating changing weather patterns is another challenge farmers have to face head-on.

We are already feeling Climate Change and the side effects that it brings; those side effects include; heatwaves, floods, droughts, longer fire seasons, abnormal weather patterns such as lack of snow cover during winter, cold summers and warm winters or vice versa.

This article will cover some valuable methods that you can apply to your farming to maintain your yields.

Let’s dig into it! (pun intended)

You need to be one step ahead of the weather, and you are able to do that with the help of online tools with useful weather features such as the EOS crop monitoring. This tool provides up to 14 day daily forecasts (accurate forecasts), historical weather data, and cold and heat stress features.

On days that you may lack rainfall to ensure the vegetation flourishes, you may want to consider drip or tape irrigation; it helps you improve soil moisture and provides reduced water expenditure caused by runoff and evaporation.

Water infiltration can prevent floods and water logs and reduce the chances of water and chemical leakage. It also reduces the use of water and tackles soil erosion.

If you would like to save some money on water (who wouldn’t?) then collecting rainfall in reservoirs could be an option for you – it could aid you in times of droughts.

Precision agriculture is like a knight in shining armour; it helps farmers save time, resources, and money and reduces pollution. It uses advanced technologies like drones and satellite-retrieved data and provides you with online farming software that can be used to analyse data. Precision Agriculture technology allows farmers to detect critical areas and focus on them instead of tending to the whole field, FieldBee has many products that will aid you with that.

Taking advantage of cover crops is a useful method that helps to prevent soil erosion and triggers water retention and nitrogen fixation. It also serves as organic manure and material for fodder and grazing cattle, increasing soil nutrients and fertility.

Adaptive crops are more resilient to sudden weather changes, require fewer herbicides or fertilisers, and increase resistance to waterlogging or droughts.

Deciding to minimise soil disturbance holds many benefits, such as it prevents soil from eroding, reduces evaporation and increases soil water retention ability while promoting carbon sequestration as a very welcome side benefit.

These techniques and practices are proven to be successful when combating lower yields. We hope that these options are helpful to you!

Let us know how you’re adapting to climate change and which of these methods you are familiar with!

Happy Farming!