SABINA, Ohio (AP) — It was just after dark when Ross Woodruff jumped into a truck to haul soybean seeds to his brother Mark, whose planter had run out. It was the first day they were able to plant after heavy rains two weeks ago left most of the 9,000 acres too muddy to carry equipment into the fields.
Mark had been working hard since mid-afternoon due to drier conditions; He was finishing the beans in one 60-decare field and moving on to another.
“This year, progress has been slow due to weather conditions,” Ross Woodruff said. “I wouldn’t say we’re behind, but a few more rains and we’ll be behind.”
Waiting for the weather is an old story in agriculture, but as climate change causes spring rains to increase in the Midwest, the usual anxiety around the spring planting ritual is expected to grow with it. In Ohio, for example, farmers have lost about five days of field work in April since 1995, according to state climatologist Aaron Wilson.
When farmers must wait for fields to dry, already long planting days can become endurance tests that stretch into the night. If planting delays are significant enough, they can affect yields, and the quality of crops planted in wet springs can also be negatively affected at harvest.
“The expectation going forward is that this will continue to be a worsening problem,” said Dennis Todey, director of the Department of Agriculture’s Midwest Climate Center. “We need to help agriculture understand this and develop new management mechanisms to deal with it by changing the way we plant, when we plant and what we plant.”
SPRING RAINS ARE INCREASING
Experts say that one effect of climate change is that warming pushes more water into the atmosphere, increasing precipitation. Much of the Midwest has seen a 5% to 15% increase in spring precipitation over the past three decades or so, according to the federal government’s Fifth National Climate Assessment. This assessment predicted an additional increase of 8% to 20% in the region by mid-century.
“The number of extreme days is increasing. It’s an upward trend,” said Melissa Widhalm, regional climatologist for the Midwest Regional Climate Center.
According to NOAA, the Ohio Valley saw a nearly quarter-inch per decade increase in April precipitation between 1980 and 2023; that’s the most in the country outside the Southeast. According to an Associated Press review of four decades of precipitation data, the largest increases in April precipitation in the Ohio Valley were seen in large swathes of southern Ohio, northern Kentucky and Indiana; About 5 to 6 inches more than normal in 2024. University of Idaho.
Farmers “will need the ability to manage a broader range of conditions,” Widhalm said.
FEWER DAYS INCREASE PRESSURE
Farms of all sizes feel the pressure to work as much as possible when field conditions allow.
This April, Katy Rogers, who manages the 117-acre Teter Retreat and Organic Farm in Noblesville, Indiana, was planting lettuce seedlings after sunset, long after her staff had left for the day. Like the Woodruffs, he was catching up after heavy rains flooded some of his fields weeks ago. On the small vegetable farm, multiple crops are planted in the spring to be harvested in the summer, and other crops are planted in the summer and harvested in the fall.
“When we miss a window and it throws us off schedule, that crop may never be finished,” Rogers said. “We can throw these seedlings away.”
This year he already stopped growing Brussels sprouts because the fields were unsuitable for planting for several weeks, which meant a loss of income of about $2,800. Because the size of his operation is smaller, Rogers is able to plant by hand when wet fields won’t allow his tractor, but he says it’s an “extremely energy-consuming” job.
“It’s exhausting to go out and be in the rain that feels like it’s slapping you,” Rogers said. He said he expects to grow more plants in indoor structures and fewer in fields in the future.
Ross Woodruff in Ohio says spring days good for field work are less frequent, coming in two- or three-day intervals rather than the one-week stretches he remembers during his 20 years as a farmer. The hours are long in these short spurts.
“If we have enough manpower, if we can afford it, we will try to continue the work at all hours of the day,” he said.
ADAPTATION TO RAIN
More rain means farmers must manage water that can erode the soil. A 2018 study by researchers at Purdue University predicted that runoff from spring rains could increase by 40% to 70% in some parts of the state.
Like many large farms, the Woodruffs rely on tile drainage to remove excess water from fields. These tiles are large perforated plastic pipes about 3 feet (1 meter) below the soil that collect water and transport it to a channel, usually between fields. Ross Woodruff said it was an expensive system, but it paid off in terms of crop yields.
However, tile drainage has its disadvantages; No matter how much rain falls, it removes moisture from the soil and can cause fields to remain dry if summer rains do not come.
Improving the health of the soil is crucial for farmers adapting to more spring rain.
Wendy Carpenter, owner of the 1 1/2-acre Christopher Farm in Modoc, Indiana, uses some sustainable farming techniques to do just that.
Like many large farms, he plants cover crops on fields that would otherwise remain bare, along with no-till practices between planting seasons. This helps maintain structure by keeping organic matter in the soil. Carpenter says his fields can handle excess water and retain some of that moisture during extremely dry periods.
This spring, he and his staff of four were able to manually plant vegetables outdoors, even after nearly 7 inches of rain earlier in the month. He says these practices, along with his farm’s small size and lack of heavy equipment, make it a bit more resilient compared to the more traditional row crop farms that surround him and have yet to begin planting.
“When we get really heavy rain events, everyone is going to be in trouble,” Carpenter said. “Those of us who actively work to increase the organic matter of our soil will make a difference in how long water is retained.”
Crop diversity, which is a big part of the plan at Teter Farm, also helps increase resilience. Although Rogers had to give up planting one crop this spring, he has planted dozens of others.
As darkness fell last month and the Woodruffs struggled to plant, Mark and Ross worked quickly to reload the planter, turn it over and line it up with the next row. The planter clattered to life, its blades lowered and the tractor’s headlights drawing a clear path.
Mark didn’t finish planting until 11 a.m., while Ross stayed up after midnight doing office work. And they weren’t alone.
Down the road, another farmer was planting his field under the full moon.
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Associated Press data reporter Mary Katherine Wildeman contributed reporting from Hartford, Connecticut.
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