Growing Resilience: Local Farmers Respond to Climate Change

The ABCD team has been wondering about how local people's livelihoods and businesses are being affected by climate change. We recently learned just how challenging the effects are for our Waldo County farmer friends, and what they are doing to adapt.

Learning how our farmers are affected by climate change

On January 20th, 2022, ABCD hosted a wonderful and eye-opening panel discussion with three local farmers: Daisy Beal from Daisychain Farm, Noami Brautigam from Second Frost Farm (renamed since this event from Dickey Hill Farm), and Mike Bahner from Bahner Farm.

We invite you to check out the excellent article from the Village Soup, and watch the recording of our discussion with the farmers. What follows is our summary of the major themes of the evening.

Winter greens woes, late frosts, water, and infrastructure challenges

The three farms share many of the same challenges due to climate change. For Bahner Farm and Dickey Hill Farm, growing winter greens is tricky business: it is really difficult to hold the greens when we have a mild fall - they grow fast, they grow a lot more, and there is regrowth after cutting, but not enough to harvest again. A few years ago when we had torrential winter rains, Dickey Hill Farm experienced rain flooding in over ice in the high tunnels of winter greens.

High tunnel growing, while it helps mitigate some of the challenges of extreme weather, can also exacerbate the effects; for example last spring when unseasonably hot weather killed an entire crop of snap peas at Dickey Hill. The financial impacts are obvious; but there can also be serious impacts to the health of farm staff working in hot conditions.

Daisychain Farm described how frost in later spring, after things warm up early, kills the strawberry blossoms and severely affects the crop size and quality. Daisychain has not yet chosen to implement high tunnel growing for the protection it could offer strawberry crops, because of how easily tunnels can be damaged in high winds; farm aesthetics; and short supply during the pandemic. (Also, as discussed in the Q&A at the end, high tunnel infrastructure is very costly but not insurable.)

Another challenge to Daisychain’s crops is finding raspberry varieties hardy enough to handle the weather extremes. Two of their three planted varieties failed and needed to be replaced. Preventing winds from drying out raspberry plants is a continuing thorny problem as well.

Water is an ongoing challenge - with extreme weather, there is often too little or too much water for crops. Irrigation systems are now an imperative for Bahner Farm; Dickey Hill dug a second well this summer to cope with drought. All three farmers echoed the importance of enhancing soil health, as soil high in organic matter can absorb and hold more water. Making compost and sowing cover crops, preventing runoff, and practicing rotational cropping and grazing are all key to soil building and resilience.

Sources of help and hope

When the farmers were asked, “What would you want your customers to appreciate about the challenges you’re dealing with?”, there were again some common threads.

All felt grateful for the “fantastic” help from the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) programs, and expressed hope that their customers would support these essential federal programs. In addition to farm improvements and technical assistance, the NRCS grants and programs include conservation projects such as managing woodlands, removing invasive species, and creating pollinator habitats.

The farmers appreciate the fact that the general public is now talking about - and acting more on - the climate crisis. A lot of their customers are home gardeners, and share in some of their concerns and challenges, although on a much smaller scale.

There was also agreement among the farmers that they feel lucky to be farming in Waldo County among a strong network of peers with whom they can share and learn. This was evident in the final portion of the discussion, where the three panelists asked questions of one another and shared more about their common concerns. As Noami expressed: “The more I hear people acknowledge the struggles, the less alone I feel.”

Watch the full video recording of the farmer panel discussion on the Library’s YouTube channel


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The ABCD Team wishes to thank Daisy, Mike and Noami for the rich discussion and insights into resilient farming in the face of climate change. Thank you all!

We also want to ask all Waldo County folks: How has climate change affected YOUR livelihood or business?

We invite you to share how climate change has affected YOUR business or job here on the ABCD website. Sharing these stories in our Belfast area community is so important:

It can help us connect with each other about the impacts we are experiencing.

It helps us recognize that we aren't alone.

It helps us figure out more ways to address these issues together.

ABCD Team

January 20, 2022

Bahner Farm
Daisychain Farm
Second Frost Farm (formerly Dickey Hill Farm)
Belfast Free Library