“Stop Fighting Mother Nature.” How farmers adapt to extreme weather

Sara Miller Llana and Stephanie Hanes, Christian Science Monitor

June 22, 2022

9d67220bce6d0c608a7de1ca66225033 — Zack Koscielny, owner operator at Green Beach Farm and Food, rolls up an electric fence as he prepares to move his beef cattle to another patch of pasture, on May 9, 2022, in Strathclair, Manitoba. He raises cattle, pigs, and chickens, and practices regenerative agriculture on his fourth-generation family farm.

Zack Koscielny has only been in charge of livestock and crops for four years, but the freckled farmer has already become accustomed to successive dry spells, including one last year that put large swaths of the Canadian prairies in exceptional drought.

Then, this season, Manitoba was hit by a major spring blizzard and several Colorado lows that have caused flooding in the Red River Valley and brought unseasonably cold, damp weather that has delayed planting across the province.

“The weather’s been crazy,” says Mr. Koscielny on a chilly spring day on the fields of Green Beach Farm in Strathclair, three hours northwest of Winnipeg.