Monday, July 10, 2023 | 2 a.m.
Rodney Mehring has been finding new ways to protect his lettuce crops in Caliente from increasing summer heat since 2014, but in the last few years, temperatures have swung from hot to cold in damaging ways.
Mehring operates Blue Lizard Farms, a 10-acre microfarm in Lincoln County that sports 18 hoop houses and five greenhouses full of tomatoes and grapes.
Those structures are fitted with fans and heaters that can protect the crops from shifting temperatures — at a cost.
But the lettuce and squash crops that make up the bulk of his business aren’t so lucky.
“In previous years, our growing season has shrunk because we’re getting hotter in the springtime sooner, and we’re staying warmer in the fall,” Mehring said.
Those crops fare best in daytime temperatures as high as 85 degrees and nighttime temperatures in the 40s, which used to be the norm for Caliente, a city of some 1,100 people about 150 miles northeast of Las Vegas.
In recent years, though, nighttime lows have jumped to the 60s by summer, cutting the growing season short, Mehring said.
Two years ago, he installed a weather station to monitor conditions after losing too many crops to unexpected temperature shifts.
“I’m just small-scale, but you add this to a 1,000-acre farm and you just have that much more risk,” Mehring said. “I really feel for those guys.”
Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit organization focusing on industrial agriculture issues and government policy, published an analysis of United States Department of Agriculture crop insurance payouts from 2001 to 2021. It found rising temperatures due to climate change mirror rising payouts from heat damage, especially in the Southwest.
Farmers in Humboldt County, in northwest Nevada, received $3.5 million in heat-related payments during that time.
Pershing County farmers received $2.6 million and Lyon County farmers received $141,114. Churchill County, received none until 2016, but racked up $287,773 from 2016 to 2021.
Anne Schechinger, Environmental Working Group’s Midwest director, said the USDA’s crop insurance program needed to be reformed to give farmers an incentive to adapt to climate change, which is making the program more expensive by the year.
“As this program stands now, it’s discouraging farmers from adapting to extreme weather,” Schechinger said.
The federal government picks up 62% of crop insurance premiums, while farmers pay the other 38%, she said.
“So we know that if the trends continue and temperatures just get hotter and hotter, then we’re going to be seeing higher payments and higher costs of the program,” Schechinger said.
Farmers can adopt conservation methods, but they should also rethink what they’re growing, Schechinger said.
In Nevada, heat isn’t the only culprit. Mehring said he started shifting when he planted summer crops to compensate for the changing temperatures, but this spring’s cooler-than-usual conditions wreaked havoc on them.
He used to count on the last frost of the year occurring by May 15, but over the last few years those frosts have continued into late June, he said.
This spring, nighttime temperatures dropped into the high 20s, causing his summer crops to struggling, and he’s lost winter squash to frost.
“There are just a lot of changes,” he said “It’s best if we have consistent, predictable weather.”
Mehring is a member of his regional Farm Service Agency board, which also provides funding to farmers and ranchers.
He said most of the claims filed through his FSA office, which covers Lincoln and Clark counties, have been drought related. Ranchers leasing Bureau of Land Management territory have reported feed loss and requested funding to help haul water to their ranches.
In the last month, melting snowpack from Mount Wilson has flooded Lincoln County fields, damaging crops and drowning livestock where they stood, he said.
Congress is working on a new five-year omnibus farm bill to replace the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, which governs federal crop insurance, conservation programs, agriculture and food policies. The 2018 bill expires in September.
Schechinger said lawmakers should require more sustainable farming practices and reduce crop insurance premium subsidies for farms considered high risk.
“Reducing these premium subsidies that taxpayers pay for in these areas could help reduce the cost of the program,” she said. “It’d also be encouraging these vulnerable areas to do more adaptation.”
Conservation methods include cover crops, a second crop planted after harvest in the fall meant to keep soil in place through the winter, covering crops with shade cloths and netting during summer, and sticking to drought-tolerant crops, she said.
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