Professor helps farmers adapt to changes in growing season
Researcher Kevin Hyde says the climate is changing, and taking with it all the old truths Montana farmers held about what crops grow best and when.
According to Hyde, the Montana Mesonet Coordinator with the College of Forestry and Conservation at the University of Montana, the increasing volatility of temperatures and precipitation has made it harder for farmers to get a reliably sized crop.
In a presentation last month at Flathead Lake Brewing Company in Bigfork, Hyde talked specifically about how climate change is impacting Montana farmers’ ability to grow barley, a staple in the beer production industry.
He said it used to be that farmers could rely on a predictable amount of snow to fall in the winter and rain in the summer, but in the last several decades that had begun to change. These days, such an important factor seems to change year to year.
That makes the crop more susceptible to heat streaks, he said, which can decimate the annual yield a farmer sees on his or her crop
According to Hyde, the average bottle of beer takes about one ounce of barley to produce, and the demand is only rising.
Hyde said that last year in Great Falls — the hub in an area where much of the state’s barley is grown — 28 of 31 days at the height of growing season saw temperatures well above the historical averages.
“We know the climate is changing, the question is how we adapt,” Hyde said.
A key part of his job is installing weather stations throughout the state to improve the data that his office has to work with. He spends his summers criss-crossing the state in a truck with a camper and a whole lot of these small stations full of instruments that measure soil moisture, temperature and precipitation levels.
He said whenever he can, he tries to get locals to help him set them up so he can learn about the local area and teach them about his efforts.
Climate change discussions are often rife with political enmity, but Hyde said he isn’t as concerned with convincing people about the cause of the change as he is with unifying them to determine how to respond. That, he said, lets him reach people who might otherwise by unreachable.
Hyde plans to set up another 30 stations this year, more than doubling the number from the 26 that are currently up. The goal is to ultimately reach 150 stations.
Hyde’s presentation was given as a part of a ceremony to celebrate an award given to Flathead Lake Brewing Company for their efforts to embrace sustainable practices in their facility.
The building was constructed with an eye toward sustainability, and head of brewery operations David Brendgard said during the presentation that after they sap the starches from the grain for use in their beer, they give it to a Polson-area farmer who uses it to feed livestock.
He also said they were looking forward to the next frontier of sustainability in their brewing process, which would entail a CO2 capture system.
Reporter Peregrine Frissell can be reached at (406) 758-4438 or pfrissell@dailyinterlake.com.