Climate resilience is the ability of a farm to meet business and family goals despite changing seasonal weather patterns, more variable weather, and more damaging extreme weather. Farmers can cultivate climate resilience by using production system designs and management practices that promote high response, recovery and transformation capacity.

Traditional agricultural risk management tends to focus on targeted solutions like irrigation and insurance that do not recognize or take advantage of the general resilience benefits produced by farming practices that promote the health of land, people and community.

Regenerative agriculture draws on a special group of farming practices that enhance farm resilience by promoting regional regeneration of ecological, social, economic and spiritual health. These practices – such as diversification of crops, livestock and markets and the use of reduced tillage, cover crops, crop rotation, and intensive grazing to promote soil health – are already familiar to many farmers because they are the foundation of success for many contemporary forms of ecological farming systems, including conservation, sustainable, and organic agriculture.

Although climate change is global, climate change impacts are regional, and the climate risks associated with these impacts are specific to farm location and operations. 

This DIY guide has been tested by nearly 100 farmers managing diversified small- and mid-scale operations in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Kansas, Maine, North Carolina and New York over the last 5 years. Most of these farmers appreciate how working through the DIY guide increased their understanding of how weather patterns are changing in their region, how these weather changes have influenced and are likely to influence farm performance in future, and what they can do about it. Farmers who complete this 5-step process feel more confident in their ability to successfully manage climate risk now and to prepare for expected challenges ahead.

Some of the planning steps recommend discussions involving all the stakeholders in your operation. You also may also need the help of trusted farm management advisors to work with the resources included here and find additional resources as needed to complete the planning process.

Planning time varies with the complexity of your farm operation, availability of farm records, and ease of access to the technical assistance needed to evaluate options and create an implementation plan, but many farmers managing small- and mid-scale diversified operations can complete a plan in about 25 hours.