As a new century begins, Western Canadian farmers already know their way of life may never be the same. Weather patterns that have changed now are so severe. there are floods, there's drought. There is so much difference; it's so much more radical, with bigger storms, and longer periods of heat.

By 2035 scientists project more drought than rain. Aquifers will still be dropping 3 meters a decade, and crop destroying pests will continue their northward march.

Nature doesn't do things predictably, and in the time of the Great Warming few things are more unpredictable than rainfall. This is southern Saskatchewan , and drought is in the climate change forecast. For some farmers that means nature needs a helping hand.

Farmers like, 47 year old Dan Sidloski. "Many, many years ago, I grew up in a large family, on quite a large farm, and we did the standard type of cultivation practices, and we saw land blow, and, and that didn't seem right to me. Mother Nature never leaves the ground bare, so my idea was, look, the ground should be covered, so that was kind of minimum till, zero till, and working towards that."

To keep the ground covered Dan stopped plowing. Instead he plants seeds into slits cut into the stubble of last year's crop. It's called zero till agriculture. The system reduces erosion, increases soil moisture, and cuts greenhouse gas emissions by keeping stored in plant residues on the land. "And we let the stubble stand, caught the snow moisture, we seed it directly into that, and we ended up with better yields."

Dan started working his land a month before his neighbours. Like any pioneer he raised a few eyebrows. "There were a lot of vehicles coming up to check out, what is he doing out there? Is he pre-working, or is he actually seeding? And, ya, there definitely was some skepticism, and, you know, with a new technology coming into an area you get that."

Even with Dan's hectic daily schedule, he's especially proud of their family project to plant their own little Garden of Eden. "There's a little piece of land just to the east of my house. It's just been kind of a dream or a thought of mine that maybe we could try to create a kind of a high canopy forest. And then when I mentioned this to our kids, well, they just went, they went absolutely berserk, they just wanted it like, "Can we? Can we really, dad? Can we do it this year? Can we do it? Like can we do it in the spring?" "We pulled it together, and, and actually got the trees planted. Now, it's not going to be a forest for a good long time. And now, with global warming and that, that's one of the things that's obviously on our mind. If we're planting trees, they're actually going to be helping to take that CO 2 out of the air and put it into wood fiber."

Adrienne Sidloski, 42, has worked alongside Dan for nearly twenty years, raising their four children and working their 2200 acre farm which produces Durham wheat, peas, barley, yellow mustard and canary seed. "In 2002, many Prairie farmers went through the worst drought in the last 130 years, and ranchers were grateful for the hay shipped west for their cattle. It was just plain luck, that here in our corner of Saskatchewan , we were spared."

Adrienne says that she believes that farmers face many challenges such as reducing the use of pesticides, and in turn chemical contamination of waterways and soil, ensuring that agriculture does not become so intensive that it depletes soil nutrients, and moving towards more sustainable organic agriculture. "I think the recent news about the increased nutrient content of organic foods is vital for everyone, and people can make a living at it, provided the operation is scaled to the proper size.

Unlike Dan, whose family has farmed for generations, Adrienne didn't come from a farming background, but it was something she had wanted to do all of her life Her advice for those who want to follow in her footsteps is simple: "You need to look at the big picture, and take a long term view for the health of the farm. Farming should never just be about business; instead it should be about how you want to live your life.