How Farmers Can Mitigate Wildfire Risks: Practical Steps for Your Farm
- Joshua Brock
- 1 day ago
- 6 min read
In recent years, wildfires have become an increasingly familiar headline across rural America. Drier seasons, unpredictable weather, and changing land-use patterns have combined to make fire a concern not just for forest managers and ranchers in the West, but for farmers everywhere.
Whether you’re working a century-old family farm in the East or a new homestead in the Plains, wildfire risk is something worth planning for. The goal isn’t panic — it’s preparation. A thoughtful approach to prevention and mitigation can mean the difference between a small, contained fire and a devastating loss of crops, buildings, or livestock.
Our article discusses some of the most important considerations and precautions you can take to help protect you, your family, and your farm from the dangers of wildfires. We'll touch on the following topics:
Understanding Where Risk Begins
Every fire needs three things: fuel, oxygen, and heat. On farms, the first ingredient — fuel — is often abundant. Dry grasses, hay, crop residue, and wooden structures provide plenty of material for flames to feed on. Add an ignition source — whether from a lightning strike, hot equipment, or a spark from metal hitting rock — and conditions can change quickly.
The degree of risk varies by region and season, but certain vulnerabilities are common almost everywhere. Fields after harvest leave behind highly flammable stubble; hay stored too tightly can heat up and combust; and machinery running during peak dryness can easily send a single spark into the air. Even in places not traditionally known for wildfire, extended dry periods can turn ordinary farm landscapes into potential fuel beds.
Building a Defensible Space Around the Farmstead
One of the simplest and most effective ways to reduce wildfire damage is to create what’s known as defensible space — the buffer zone between structures and surrounding vegetation. Think of this space as a safety moat for your home, barns, and outbuildings.
Around homes and main farm buildings, keeping grass short, removing dead plants, and clearing away combustible materials can go a long way. Even small details — like cleaning out gutters or moving firewood stacks away from walls — reduce vulnerability. Further out from the immediate structure, mowed pastures or well-grazed fields act as natural barriers that slow a fire’s advance.
In hilly or forested areas, this buffer should extend even farther, since fire climbs uphill quickly. Open strips of soil, gravel drives, or mowed lanes between crop fields can double as firebreaks, limiting how far flames can travel. The key is to think of your property in layers of defense, ensuring there’s always a gap between wild vegetation and anything you can’t afford to lose.
Keeping Machinery Fire-Safe
Many farm fires don’t start in forests or fields; they start with a tractor, a combine, or a welder. Farm machinery is indispensable, but it can also be a hidden source of ignition if not properly maintained. A buildup of chaff or grease around a hot engine can ignite easily under dry conditions.
Regular inspection and cleaning are essential. Worn bearings, cracked wiring, and fuel leaks should be repaired before fieldwork begins. Equipment used during harvest, when vegetation is driest, should always carry a fire extinguisher or small water tank. It’s also wise to avoid operating machinery during the hottest, windiest parts of the day. Even parking a truck in tall grass can cause trouble — heat from exhaust systems has been known to start fires that spread before anyone notices.
These aren’t complicated precautions, but they are the ones most often overlooked, especially in the rush of harvest season.
How Farmbrite Can Help
Farmbrite’s Equipment maintenance functionality lets you easily record and track service performed on all of your equipment. You can also schedule routine maintenance to ensure important work is performed when it's needed to avoid equipment failures and safety hazards.
Strengthening Farm Buildings Against Fire
In wildfire-prone areas, homes are often built with fire-resistant materials. The same logic applies to barns, sheds, and workshops. While it may not be feasible to rebuild, hardening existing structures can significantly improve their resilience.
Metal roofing, clean gutters, and gravel perimeters help prevent embers from finding a foothold. Simple mesh screens on vents and eaves keep burning debris from entering attics or lofts. Even something as basic as replacing wood mulch with gravel near outbuildings reduces ignition risk.
Hay and chemical storage areas deserve special attention. Poorly ventilated hay bales can self-heat and ignite from within — a leading cause of barn fires. Separating these materials and ensuring adequate airflow can prevent such accidents entirely.
Planning Ahead for Livestock Safety
When wildfires threaten, there’s little time to think through logistics. For farms with animals, an evacuation plan can make all the difference.
Safe zones — such as large, well-grazed pastures or arenas free of vegetation — should be identified in advance as holding areas if flames are nearby. These spaces, ideally bordered by firebreaks or gravel, provide a refuge when evacuation isn’t possible. Livestock trailers should be kept in good condition, trucks fueled, and gates and access roads maintained for quick movement.
Equally important is keeping essential records, identification, and emergency contacts in a grab-and-go folder. In the stress of an emergency, having this information ready prevents confusion and speeds coordination with local responders.
Managing Vegetation and Field Edges
On a large property, vegetation control is a year-round task — but it’s also one of the most effective wildfire defenses. Overgrown fencerows and uncut field edges act as continuous fuel. Regular mowing, grazing, or tilling of buffer strips can interrupt those fuel lines.
Some farmers choose to use controlled burns or rotational mowing to manage underbrush and rejuvenate pastures, though these practices should always be conducted safely and in accordance with local regulations. The goal isn’t to strip the land bare, but to maintain balance — enough cover to protect the soil, but not enough to feed an advancing fire. Consider incorporating a variety of regenerative farming practices that will help build healthier crops in healthier soils all year round.
For farms that border forest or public land, cooperation with neighbors and agencies can make a big difference. A single unmanaged property can increase the risk for everyone around it.
How Farmbrite Can Help
Mapping your farm - fields, ponds, structures, etc. - in and of your farm itself, but also in relation to the adjoining properties, helps you implement best practices and mitigate high fire hazard locations on your farm. Our mapping feature lets you see and manage it all at a glance.
Watching Utilities and Power Lines
Electrical infrastructure presents its own set of hazards. In rural areas, downed lines or malfunctioning transformers are common wildfire ignition sources, particularly in high winds. Keeping trees trimmed back from power lines, avoiding storage of hay or equipment near poles, and clearly marking water sources or hydrants for fire crews all help reduce potential loss.
In some regions, utilities may perform public safety power shutoffs during extreme fire conditions. It’s worth having backup generators ready to maintain critical systems like water pumps or refrigeration when that happens.
Creating a Farm Wildfire Plan
All the best prevention efforts work even better when guided by a plan. A farm wildfire plan doesn’t need to be complicated, but it should be written down, shared, and reviewed regularly.
At minimum, it should include emergency contacts, maps of the property showing fuel storage, water sources, and evacuation routes, and clear instructions for employees or family members. Many state extension services or local fire departments can help you develop or refine such a plan.
A well-practiced plan helps reduce panic when time is short. It’s about ensuring everyone knows where to go, what to do, and what to save first.
Staying Alert and Weather-Aware
Fire risk changes daily, and awareness is a farmer’s first line of defense. Keeping an eye on local fire danger ratings and weather alerts helps you anticipate when to modify work routines. Avoiding certain tasks — like welding or field mowing — on high-risk days can prevent costly accidents.
Technology can help here too. Many states now offer text or app-based alert systems that notify you of red flag warnings or active fires in your area. Combine those tools with regular coordination among family members and neighbors, and you’ll always have eyes and ears across the property.
How Farmbrite Can Help
As we know, weather plays a critical role in all of our lives, but particularly for that of a farmer. When you log into your Farmbrite account, you are immediately presented with the hourly, daily, and mapped weather information and can plan your work accordingly.
Preparedness Over Panic
No one can remove wildfire risk entirely, but a farmer who plans is far better equipped to minimize it. Creating defensible space, maintaining equipment, managing vegetation, and preparing for livestock safety all work together to protect not just property, but livelihood.
The most important part of wildfire readiness isn’t fear — it’s stewardship. Farmers understand the value of caring for their land season after season. That same care, extended toward fire preparedness, ensures that both the land and those who depend on it are ready for whatever nature brings next.