Adjust the timing or location of on-farm activities

As the climate changes, consider adjusting farm practices to take into account altered seasonality. Producers have always made adjustments to cope with variable weather conditions by changing the timing or field operations (Hatfield et al. 2014), and many of these types of changes are already occurring autonomously as conditions change and without specific consideration of longer term climate trends (Smit and Skinner 2002). In fact, evidence suggests that decisions about the timing of many agricultural practices are more likely to be based upon recent years’ weather than the longer term trend for a particular place (Smit et al. 1996). This approach emphasizes alterations in the timing and location of on-farm activities that take into account long-term trends and projections in climate, as well as inter-annual variation of weather. Although broader scale changes in location and timing will also be needed, such as northward shifts of crops to new landscapes (Ainsworth and Ort 2010), these are beyond the scope of this approach.

Many of the key climate variables affecting agricultural productivity are directly tied to increases in temperature (Hatfield et al. 2014). A longer growing season, warmer daytime and nighttime temperatures, and drier conditions are all expected to have important effects on agricultural crops and livestock, and in many areas of the Midwest, effects are already being observed (Hatfield et al. 2014). Increasingly, producers will need to consider and address the unique effects of higher temperatures on individual commodities. In some locations, drier conditions will have greater impacts.