American Family Farmer

Host and American Family Farmer, Doug Stephan www.eastleighfarm.com shares the biggest news affecting family farmers, starting with preparations for incoming bad weather. Doug has already put most of his equipment away for the season, with the exception of what he’s still using. Looking back at stats over recent years, farming operations have faced some significant weather with early frosts, extreme winter weather, droughts or heat waves, and how events may intensify because of global warming and how we can prepare. Key advice includes staying informed on incoming weather and who to call when in need, develop an emergency protocol for evacuation, stock and maintain emergency supply kits, keep up-to-date inventory, have fire prevention measures in place, and discuss protocols with your family and farm staff. Moving on, Doug shares some statistics of not about the number of farms going down. There are less and less farming operations as time goes on. Doug poses the rhetorical question, “why?” Many reasons, of c