SEYMOUR (NBC 26) — While just a few weeks ago, much of Northeast Wisconsin was under drought conditions, local farmers are now having to adapt to heavy rains. From flooding to fungus, heavy rain can pose a serious threat to local farmers.
"There’s a lot of other farms around us that are underwater and if rains keep going like this, it’s probably going to be the case all through the fall," said Andrew Adamski, the owner of Full Circle Community Farm.
Full Circle Community Farm in Seymour is finding a unique solution to withstanding the severe weather conditions.
"We’re putting as much carbon back into the soil as possible through compost, through cover crops, and always keeping green cover on the soil,” Adamski said.
Adamski says getting organic matter into the soil is key to making the soil resilient. In order to accomplish this, his farm uses everything from compost to animals.
"We have a hundred cows out there and they’re grazing that so that organic matter that is always on the soil’s surface is getting replenished, fertilized and rotated by the cows themselves,” Adamski said.
He says layering the soil with carbon is what helps keep it resilient to drastic weather changes.
"When we do get a ton of rain like this the soil can act as a sponge and just soak it all up," Adamski said. "Then probably a month from now we’ll have another drought and our farm will be fine because all that organic matter will have absorbed and held all this rain we just got.”
It’s what he calls the “future of farming” at a time when farms are having to adapt to an age of climate change.
"That’s what is building that resilience for us and all other farmers that are doing it this way," Adamski said. "We’re kind of, we like to say, future proofing the farm."
