BOTTOM LINE Thursday, May 20, 2021 SECTION E
Sharing ideas, solutions, resources and experiences that help dairy producers succeed.
Adapt for changing climate AMBER RADATZ
Climate change is a topic being addressed in many ways at the local, state and national level. Many predictions and recommendations are surfacing regarding climate-change mitigation and adaptation. Mitigation means reducing climate-change effects by reducing the flow of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Radatz Adaptation means changing behaviors or systems based on identified or expected climate changes. Agriculture is making steps toward adaptation and mitigation. Examples include farming systems that emphasize reduced soil disturbance, increased cover and plant diversity. They turn agricultural lands into a sink for carbon and become mitigation techniques with a positive impact on climate change. Many farmers have started to make adaptations to their systems to protect their farms from nutrient loss, devastating erosion events or crop losses caused by weather challenges such as dry periods or extreme storms. Discovery Farms has compared its edge-of-field runoff data to corresponding rainfall. The data from Wisconsin and Minnesota show the impacts of precipitation events of different sizes on runoff, sediment and nutrient loss. A rainfall-return period is an estimate of the likelihood of a rainfall event to occur. The prob-
UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN DISCOVERY FARMS
Snowmelt is a primary accomplice in runoff events, as are storm events throughout the warmer seasons. ability of a 100-year-rainfall event occurring in any given year is 1 out of 100 or 1 percent. Generally, as the return period increases so does the rainfall or rainfall intensity. The graph separates surface-runoff events into rainfall-return periods as measured by Discovery Farms. It’s expected that storms will be seen with a return period of 0 YR – shown in dark blue, and snowmelt – shown in light blue. There are main takeaway points shown in the graph. Runoff events are usually caused by snowmelt or storm events in sizes expected to occur every year. Most runoff is caused by snowmelt while the ground is frozen. In the non-frozen season, small- and medium-sized storm events influence the amount of runoff from a field. Soil loss is affected by storms
of normal size while the soil is not frozen. But large storm events are a factor in more sediment loss than any other constituent. Phosphorus and nitrogen loss have similar characteristics to runoff volume relative to storm size. Snowmelt delivers the largest share of losses, while small- and medium-sized storms comprise the rest of the total. Climate-change models predict more extreme precipitation events. That raises concerns because soil loss is disproportionately impacted by large events. To adapt for those changing conditions, agricultural systems must be built for extreme weather conditions. Increasing cover during winter and spring helps prepare for large precipitation events. There are many acceptable cover-crop options but a priority should be placed on establishing cover in the
Impact of rainfall-return periods on surface-runoff events fall – with enough biomass going into the winter to provide armor for soils in the spring. If planting a multi-species mix, choose one that contains at least one species that will live through the winter. It needs to provide living cover through the spring months until the next crop is canopied, to protect against soil loss. That may mean changing rotations or varieties to allow for earlier establishment of cover crops, or before Oct. 1. Systems should also afford more protection against soil loss, no matter the size of precipitation events. In addition to protecting against sediment loss from large storm events, farming systems that are built with diverse crop rotations will have increased resilience for climate challenges. More flexibility is needed regarding when manure can be applied. One way to achieve that is to identify diverse forage rotations that allow
for different windows of manure application and more days of living cover. With flexibility in the timing of manure application, producers can avoid time periods with greater risk for surface runoff or nitrogen leaching. As adaptations to farming systems continue to be made, an important consideration is changing weather and climate conditions. Conservation systems are often referred to as more resilient in a challenging weather year. Instead of merely designing farming systems that can survive through a bad year it would be better to build adaptive systems that thrive in all conditions. As a return, farming systems will also serve as a sink for carbon and nutrients, further mitigating future climate change. Amber Radatz is co-director of University of Wisconsin-Discovery Farms. Email amber.radatz@wisc. edu to reach her.
PDPW BOARD MEMBER PROFILE
Learning makes dairy difference Left: PDPW board member Steven Orth says he’s thankful to PDPW for its impact, especially in the initial stages of the farm’s involvement. ‘PDPW got our gears turning and prompted us to dig deeper into our operation, and it has snowballed from there,’ he says.
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The correct resources at the correct time have helped Steven and Joel Orth set the stage for success at Orthland Dairy Farm LLC in Manitowoc County, Wisconsin. The brothers own and operate the 1,400-cow dairy with their mother, Maxine Orth. By the time Steven Orth attended his first PDPW program as a teenager – the two-day career-oriented Youth Leadership Derby® – he knew he was more interested in working on the farm than being in a classroom, he said. “I always knew I wanted to farm,” he said. “I was mainly thrilled that dairyfarm educational programs were available other than going to college.” The Derby event helped him realize education didn’t need to be confined to the walls of a school building. “It opened my eyes to what is out there,” he said. “It was exciting to find an organization that exists to provide education in agriculture and dairy farming.” He’d already learned more than most his age; he and his brother took on significant on-farm roles after their father, Dennis Orth, passed away in a farm accident. At the ages of 12 and 18 the two brothers along with their mother and farm managers kept the farm operating. After graduating from Kiel High School and attending Fox Valley Technical College, Steven Orth returned to the dairy full-time. The Orths began in 2011 to work with an independent financial consultant, at the recommendation of their lender after their dairy expanded from 350 cows to 700 cows. “We expanded because we thought it was the right thing to do,” Steven Orth said. “But looking back I see we didn’t have a complete understanding of what was necessary to successfully manage our employees, finances and business.” He continued to attend PDPW programs, leaning particularly into the
management and financial courses. He also attended Managers Academy® in several locations, learning from the presentations of that national executive-level
program. He heard insights from leaders of outside industries and networked with peers from other states. Each time he’d return PDPW home with new information, eager to implement Steven Orth compares learning from PDPW programs to finding a college that doesn’t require a full-time commitment. The programs allow attendees to choose topics that are Please see ORTH, Page E2 most important to them.
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