You watch your upland crops wither in the drought. Your pastures don’t supply all the nutrients your livestock need. Drought seems to go on forever.

Eventually, even in Southern California, the drought is broken by a very wet year. And what happens to that water after a severe drought?

It depends on the amount of vegetation covering the soil. Have you been tilling and irrigating during the drought to gain any harvest? If so, most of the rainfall will run off your fields taking with it any fertilizers you’ve added.

Have you planted drought tolerant cover crops that also give good nutrients to your livestock? Are you a regenerative farmer who’s been mob-grazing your livestock to mimic nature? If so, most of that rainfall will percolate into your soil with almost no runoff.

Farming and ranching during a drought is challenging but it’s not impossible. It does require observing the natural ecosystem. Finding ways to grow crops with the least amount of disturbance to that ecosystem.

Extreme Weather Calls for Changes in AG Practices

Droughts and floods aren’t going away any time soon. We have to learn how to farm smarter in a climate whose only constant is unpredictability.

We have to become #WaterEfficient. In many parts of the country aquifers are being drained and wells are going dry. Thinking outside the box agriculture has been in since the 1930s can help us.

Are you prepared to capture the rainfall when it finally comes? Some Californians are future-proofing their farms by developing on-farm recharge of aquifers. Underground water doesn’t evaporate like surface water.

As we’ve depleted our soils we’ve also been depleting our soils we’ve also been depleting our aquifers. Agriculture consumes a large percentage of well water. It’s time to think of ways to be water smart to keep farms productive.

To find out more about floods, droughts, and agriculture contact 👉our team at STBiologicals.com.👈