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Northeast Climate Hub partners have published two new studies exploring how a changing climate is affecting regional crops and livestock. Hear the lead authors of these studies highlight species or production systems that might be particularly vulnerable to changing conditions. They also include practical actions one can take to reduce the harmful aspects of some of these changes. This is Part 2: Climate change effects on livestock in the Northeast US and strategies for adaptation (presenter: Alexander Hristov)

Participants will learn how energy-oriented design and operation can impact the resilience (the capacity to recover quickly from challenges) and long term success of farm operations, as well as identify common energy strategies for farm viability and resilience.

Participants will learn how to use available UNIX-based scripts to automate access to free weather data from NOAA/NWS databases, as well as examples of how such data can be translated into weather-based farm management decisions by automated analysis and export of presentation graphics through Microsoft Excel.

A collection of web tools for visualizing past and projected climate and hydrology in the US.

An online toolkit is designed to help farmers from the Northeast US improve their productivity and resiliency in the face of a changing climate by using decision support tools for growing degree days, water deficits, and planting schedules.

A platform for visualizing climate and weather forecast models. Site content is organized into three general categories: Weather Forecasts, Climate Charts, and Research Tools. Pages within the first two groups are the easiest to use and include maps, map animations, and interactive time series charts (with data export options). Research Tools include pages for generating custom maps, time series, and linear correlations from monthly climate reanalysis, gridded data, and climate models.

Provides technical and financial assistance to support the long-term installation of perennial vegetation. Funds the establishment of filter strips, pasture/hay plantings, grassed waterways, and other erosion or grade control infrastructure.

Utilizes state funding to help Vermont farms implement soil-based agronomic practices that improve soil quality, increase crop production, and reduce erosion and agricultural waste discharges.

Provides pasture management technical assistance and financial assistance to Vermont farmers to improve water quality and on-farm livestock exclusion from surface waters statewide.

NOFA-VT’s Farmer Services Team offers flexible, responsive services to support farmers in assessing their level of climate risk and identifying adaptation strategies to increase their resilience. Submit Services Questionnaire to connect with the team

NOFA-VT program distributes funds directly to farmers to support projects that improve long-term resilience on farm and in community. Maximum award of $5,00 per farm, with optional multi-farm applications of up to $20,000. Open Dec-Jan annually.

Monthly awards recognize farmers whose businesses are contributing to a resilient Vermont agricultural landscape and demonstrate environmental stewards. Grants fund Vermont farm resilience-building projects. Three application cycles annually.

Veggie Compass is a decision support tool to help diversified vegetable farmers understand their costs of production and evaluate profitability by crop and by market channel. Veggie Compass enables farmers to make strategic decisions to adjust prices, reduce costs, shift market channel focus, reduce or drop unprofitable products, and expand production of their most profitable ventures based on their own farm data. Gathering and entering the data needed to accurately calculate the costs of production on a diversified vegetable farm that might be growing over 40 crops and selling in multiple markets is challenging. This is why so many growers rely on gut instincts and/or simplified crop budgets rather than a complete accounting. Veggie Compass is designed to help growers sort through the chaos and enable them to make data-driven decisions to enhance profitability. Growers using Veggie Compass report learning which crops on their farm are true “winners” and “losers” in terms of profitability; identifying which market channels are more profitable than others; identifying where cost savings might be made or whether yields could be enhance through better management; using the information from Veggie Compass to negotiate higher prices with wholesale buyers or to target specific crops for wholesale markets.

This publication explains how increased soil health and organic matter content help retain moisture to aid during droughty periods. It also discusses soil health management strategies to improve organic matter content.

This publication addresses basic concepts related to agricultural drainage.

The CSF Water Deficit Calculator estimates soil water content within a crop’s effective root zone to inform decision makers about current and forecasted water deficits. Information is used to determine the optimum frequency and duration of irrigation

The goals of this publication are to present the principles behind drip irrigation and some practical guidelines for successful and profitable use of drip irrigation.

Farmer-Led Innovations for Reduced Tillage (FLI) cultivates co-learning and innovation among organic vegetable farmers in New England. This site features the trials of a small cohort of innovative farmers trialing reduced tillage practices.

This workshop covers regenerative systems used at Freedom Food Farm: no-till crops, livestock integration, rotational grazing, biodiversity, soil preservation, input reduction, and more! From the 2020 NOFA Summer Conference

This page collects research around reduced tillage topics for vegetables, including living mulch under organic acorn squash and Brussel sprouts, tarps to terminate cover crops, sorghum sudan grass residue as mulch for tomatoes, and more....

This webinar explores the spectrum of reduced tillage practices at all scales, covering equipment and methods that can improve soil health and save labor. Speakers: Julie Fine, American Farmland Trust; Natalie Lounsbury, University of New Hampshire.

Webinar on Reduced Tillage Systems for Organic Vegetables including cover crop management and equipement strategies.

Livestock Compass is a decision support tool designed to help diversified livestock farmers understand their costs of production and evaluate the profitability of their various animal enterprises. Livestock Compass enables farmers to make strategic decisions to adjust prices, reduce costs, shift market channel focus, reduce or drop unprofitable enterprises and expand production of their most profitable ventures based on their own farm data.Livestock Compass organizes farm information about financial and production outcomes to give a producer a factual basis for making management decisions to improve profitability. It helps a producer identify inefficiencies in production, decide what feeds to grow on the farm and which to buy from others, decide whether to raise young stock or buy stock, accurately monitor cost of production, set prices in various marketing channels, and select the best marketing channels to pursue.

The Fruit & Nut Compass is a farm business planning tool to help both new and experienced producers project the financial costs and returns from an enterprise focused on perennial crops.The Fruit & Nut Compass is very different than a standard crop enterprise budget because it enables a person to examine the complete costs and expected returns of up to 12 crops, simultaneously, as part of an integrated farm plan over a 15 year time period. The tool is designed as an “open workbench” where the user enters information based on their specific plans to assess whether their enterprise will be profitable. It does NOT include any assumptions about crops, yields, costs or selling prices…those are all data entry tasks for the user. The main questions this tool helps the user answer are: how deep of a financial hole will I be digging and when might my perennial crop farm become profitable?