Tue. Feb. 3, 2026
Transcript:
Last spring, many Ohio farmers struggled to plant their corn and soybeans because persistent rain made their fields too soggy to work.
But by August, many farmers faced the opposite problem. Drought plagued much of the state.
Wilson: “April through July was the eighth-wettest four-month April through July period on record, and then we had the driest August.”
Aaron Wilson is Ohio’s state climatologist and the agriculture, weather, and climate field specialist at Ohio State University’s Extension.
He says farmers will likely face more wild swings in the future. As the climate changes, Ohio is expected to get more precipitation, especially in spring, with rain falling in heavy downpours. Meanwhile, droughts will be increasingly likely in summer.
To adapt, Wilson recommends that farmers plant cover crops and till their soil less to prevent erosion.
But he says farmers will also have to make hard decisions. For example, as spring planting windows shrink, do they buy bigger equipment to work faster? Or will that equipment be too heavy to use in muddy fields?
There’s no easy answer. And for farmers, the stakes of adapting to climate change are high.
Wilson: “Farmers live on a tight margin, and it’s narrowing that margin a little bit more.”
Reporting credit: ChavoBart Digital Media / Thanks to the Midwest Climate Resilience Conference for logistical support.
