From changing leaves to cooler days, fall is a season of transition. For farmers, it is also the time to take stock of your land and prepare your fields for the winter ahead.
Even if fall isn’t your heaviest harvest season, that doesn’t mean there is less work to do. Keeping your farm tidy, preserving food, repairing equipment, and winterizing barns help your farm thrive in the long term.
In this comprehensive guide, we’ll reveal more essential tips and strategies for preparing rural property for the upcoming fall season.
#1: Tidy Up Your Farm
A clean space is a more successful one. As summer comes to a close, tidy up debris, vegetation, and other clutter that has collected on your farm. This includes tree branches, grass clippings, dead plants, animal waste, scrap metal, and broken equipment.
Cleaning up your farm will also help prevent pest outbreaks. Plus, the gathered natural materials facilitate composting to enrich your soil and discourage weed growth. Proactive cleaning in the fall will pay off during your next planting and harvest.
#2: Prepare Equipment for Winter Storage
Taking care of your machinery and equipment helps ensure that it lasts for seasons to come. Before putting equipment in storage, preserve its lifespan with a deep cleaning to remove dirt and other residue. This is also the perfect time to examine your equipment for any rust, stress, or damage. That way, you have plenty of time for tune-ups, repairs, or replacements.
Next, complete a thorough fall check-up of all machinery. Pay particular attention to:
- Antifreeze – This coolant helps prevent corrosion and other freeze damage throughout the winter.
- Gasoline – If your equipment will go unused for months, it is better to empty the tank before storage and refill it with fresh gas in the spring.
- Volt charge – Batteries must remain partially charged throughout the winter to avoid freezing over. You can disconnect batteries and store them somewhere warmer or periodically monitor and recharge batteries to maintain proper voltage.
- Tires – Check tire pressure before putting vehicles in storage. If you won’t move vehicles all winter, support them on jacks to minimize tire strain.
Once your equipment is all set, tuck it away in secure, dry indoor storage to keep it protected from the elements.
#3: Harvest and Preserve Your Crops
Fall prep begins in late summer, meaning you will still be harvesting your warm-weather crops. Chances are, you won’t use your harvest all at once. Perhaps you will keep some produce in storage while selling others at local markets. There are many tasty ways to preserve fresh crops, including:
- Drying
- Freezing
- Pickling
- Fermenting
- Canning and bottling
- Salt preserves
- Sugar preserves (jams, jellies, juices)
Before you know it, you’ll be able to enjoy summer crops well into the winter.
#4: Plan Next Year’s Crop Rotation
Crop rotation is a crucial part of your farm’s success. Not only should you plant different crops per season, but you can rotate crops from field to field to create a diverse cropping history on your land.
There are countless benefits to crop rotation, including improved soil health, reduced erosion, and fewer weeds. Overall, crop rotation enhances your farm and leads to higher crop yields.
Include Cover Crops
When planning your rotation, be sure to account for cover crops, which are planted to cover the soil rather than for harvest. Examples include clover, beans, wheat, and barley. Cover crops offer many benefits to farmland, such as:
- Soil fertility
- Water retention
- Erosion control
- Pest management
- Weed control
- Crop diversity
- Pollination
Planting cover crops in the fall is a long-term investment in optimizing your farm’s potential.
#5: Prepare Livestock For Fall
As days get cooler, it’s your job to ensure that your animals stay healthy and well-fed. Fall prep includes providing plenty of hay and other feed, as well as bolstering your forage supplies.
Livestock require more food in the winter than in the summer, as they burn more calories to meet higher energy requirements to stay warm. If your animals don’t eat enough to compensate for this energy expenditure, they will lose weight, and the cost of vet and feed bills to rehabilitate animals will far outweigh purchasing extra hay from the start.
Fall is also when you may begin transitioning livestock from fields to a barn. This is an opportune time to wipe down all animals, clean and inspect their hooves, and ensure they are free of infection. Plus, check in with your local vet on any pending vaccinations.
#6: Stockpile Essential Winter Supplies
In the fall, it is necessary to restock reserves before the winter. Important supplies include:
- Straw – For animal bedding
- Hay – Animal feed
- Water trough heaters – To prevent troughs from freezing over
- Livestock medications and ointments – In case of injury or emergency
- Generators – Power backup during outages
- Salt or other ice melt – To keep roads and paths safe
- Firewood or pellets – For home heating systems
You’ll have peace of mind by gathering all your supplies ahead of time, rather than scrambling for essentials at the last minute.
#7: Winterize Barns and Buildings
As temperatures drop, you stay warm at home by cranking up the heat and grabbing a cozy blanket. Since your animals can’t do the same, it is important to properly winterize all buildings on your acreage to ensure that livestock stay safe and healthy.
First off, make sure that there are no holes, leaks, or other damage on the walls and roof. Ensure that windows and doors are sealed against drafts. Everything should be repaired in the fall before the winter sets in.
If you haven’t already, insulate your barn to keep animals warm. To prevent drinking water from freezing, you may consider investing in trough heaters.
Take the same careful consideration when storing tools and equipment. Everything should be completely covered, whether with a tarp or in a shed, to stay dry throughout the winter; without proper storage, your supplies can become damaged or faulty.
#8: Clear and Maintain Drainage Systems
Drainage is crucial on farmland to prevent water stress, oversaturated soil, and excess surface runoff. As you tidy up your farm for fall, make sure to thoroughly wash out your drainage system, which can become clogged up with leaves, mud, and other debris.
While the summer is relatively dry, fall can bring days of heavy rain. Your drainage system will be putting in overtime, so you should routinely monitor and clean out pipes to keep drainage running smoothly.
In addition to the benefits we already mentioned, cover crops also aid in water management. Planting fall cover crops strengthens the soil, improves water infiltration, and minimizes runoff—all of which aid in proper drainage.
#9: Prepare and Test Heat Sources
If your farm is also a homestead, make sure that the heat in your house is working properly. Take care of any repairs or maintenance before the winter hits. If your heating system uses a fuel source (e.g., firewood, oil), stock up on these supplies now.
It’s just as important to ensure your livestock stay warm as well. Depending on the size of your barn, your animals may benefit from supplemental heaters. This is also the time to take livestock blankets out of storage.
With simple proactivity, your family and animals alike will have a smooth transition to colder weather.
#10: Implement Safety Measures
The end of the summer can feel like crunch time on your farm as you rush to finish harvesting and prepare for the fall season. However, that doesn’t mean safety should take a backseat to productivity.
Here are a few safety tips for landowners to keep in mind.
- Use PPE – Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) like safety goggles, helmets, and work gloves are a must when tackling large cleanup projects or construction repairs.
- Avoid fatigue – In the scramble to complete your to-do list, remember to take breaks and stay hydrated. It’s also better to stop working and get enough sleep than push your body into exhaustion.
- Stay safe on the road – If you don’t have any, get “slow-moving vehicle” decals. If sun exposure has lightened your existing stickers, it’s time to replace them.
Anything can happen in the course of a workday, so it helps to be prepared.
Discover More Expert Resources on Land.com
Set your farm up for success with more tips and tricks from Land News, a go-to source trusted by rural landowners nationwide. From more sustainable solutions to irrigation strategies, our land experts are here to help.
Interested in expanding your acreage? Browse thousands of farms for sale on Land.com, the leading network for rural real estate. Easily apply property filters, acre minimums, and price ranges to find your dream property. To expand your search, browse available listings nationwide.
For expert guidance throughout the buying process, connect with one of our Land Pros. These real estate professionals know the ins and outs of rural land, with local knowledge and negotiation skills to boot. It’s easy for Land Pros to add a listing, which is why more than 12 million active buyers and landowners visit our site every month.
Find a Land Pro in your area to get started!
Sources:
EPA. Introduction to Integrated Pest Management. https://www.epa.gov/ipm/introduction-integrated-pest-management.
PennState Extension. Preparing and Storing Farm Equipment for Winter. https://extension.psu.edu/preparing-and-storing-farm-equipment-for-winter.
Food and Agriculture Organization. Processing and preserving methods. https://www.fao.org/4/T0073E/T0073E06.htm.
SARE. Basics of Crop Rotation. https://www.sare.org/publications/crop-rotation-on-organic-farms/how-expert-organic-farmers-manage-crop-rotations/basics-of-crop-rotation/.
SARE. Cover Crops for Sustainable Crop Rotations. https://www.sare.org/resources/cover-crops/.
Iowa State University. Increase Hay Intake for Winter. https://www.extension.iastate.edu/equine/increase-hay-intake-winter.
University of Minnesota Extension. How agricultural drainage works. https://extension.umn.edu/agricultural-drainage/how-agricultural-drainage-works#frequently-asked-questions-1362415.