I suspect that, in the great scheme of things, and if we dig back in to the annals of history, that we'd find that this year hasn't been all that unusual. Regardless, it has farmers squirming.
That being said, it seems to reinforce something I've been reading a lot about over the last year, and it has to do with the notion of rotational grazing and permaculture.
To put it simply, wet years like this don't mesh we'll with modern agriculture, which emphasizes tillage and annual crops. Even with the advent if no-till practices, which require lots of chemicals, wet years like this make large scale farming difficult and stressful when the business model for such farming assumes that Mother Nature will afford optimal weather and a lengthy growing season.
I suspect that in years like this, those that farm with rotational grazing are least affected. I think the same can be said of last year, which was extraordinarily dry. Whether these extreme weather patterns are simply natural anomalies or evidence of climate change, it seems like the solution in either situation is to return to agriculture focused on permaculture and grazing. One of the leading experts on this subject is Joel Salatin at Polyface Farms. http://www.polyfacefarms.com/
I'd also encourage you to watch this video that deals with grazing as the solution, not the cause, to desertification.
Here at the homestead, we're still learning as we go. Maybe the biggest bright spot in this wet stretch has been that the plums and cherries we planted, plus the strawberries and blackberries we transplanted, are doing great.
You may also recall that last year we set up some of our garden beds with black plastic for our melons and pumpkins/squash. One benefit this year is that we simply rotated everything, leaving the plastic undisturbed. There's been no weeding or tilling and we simply planted back into the hills we formed last year with composted manure.
I'll try to be better about posting, but here are some pics from the last month.
