By Bailey Wright | December 8, 2016
Except for one time in the mid-nineties, Stephen Olsen has never seen the groundwater level at Agronomy Research Farm go this low.
Olsen has been the farm manager of the University of Connecticut Plant Science Research Farm on Agronomy Road for 30 years. Every morning at 8 a.m., he enters the data from the onsite groundwater meter from over night. This year it reached 8 feet.
His mornings also include checking the three or four forecasts bookmarked on his computer and a couple more on his phone. It’s part of his job to know the weather.
“How much did it rain last night?” his research technicians will ask as they get ready for the day. Amount of rainfall determines what they will do that day. It determines if they are going to irrigate their crops and how much compaction they are willing to risk with tractors or plows, Nelson said.
“I’m always looking at the radar throughout the day,” Nelson said. Even if he doesn’t know how much they’ll get, he knows when rain is coming.
Nelson hasn’t seen as much rainfall on the radar this year. Neither has the rest of the state. Almost 83 percent of Connecticut is now listed as being in “severe drought,” by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Drought Monitor website, and as of Nov. 15, 44 percent of the state is in “extreme drought.”
Connecticut’s current state of drought has been growing since 2013.
Luckily, UConn’s research farm hasn’t “seen any drought stress on any of the crops (we) grow here,” Nelson said. That’s because Connecticut’s topography lends to drought resilience on it’s own, according to Nelson. The Nutmeg State is experiencing a bad drought this year, he said, but it’s not as bad as other parts of the country like California and Tennessee that are experiencing wide spread fires and extreme damage.
Connecticut landscape lends to “combat basil till” or “frangipan” which are terms for an artificial hard pan below the soil, Nelson explained. The hard pan system means that water absorption becomes more difficult and therefore stays toward the top of the soil longer.
The biggest impact the drought has had on the Agronomy Road research farm has been “brain power.”
“Did it negatively affect us? No, not beyond being more mindful of our water usage,” Nelson said.
More stress is put on managers in times of drought, as they have to be more cognizant of how much and where they are getting water.
UConn’s research farm only uses up to 10,000 gallons of water a day. Other farms in Connecticut are allowed to use up to 49,00o gallons a day without obtaining a special permit. However, all farmers are aware that an overuse of water could result in a source running dry, Nelson said.
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