Last week, while he was walking through his pastures meant to be growing green grass for his animals, farmer Dave Hatfield’s boots kicked up clouds of dry earth from the brown fields.

“This is not much different than farming in the desert in Bend, Oregon, he said, gesturing to the 5 acres around him, home to 400 fowl and more than 20 cows, sheep and pigs.

Hatfield has owned Pink Tractor Farm on Cemetery Road with his wife Katie for the past three years. There they have fruit trees, grow vegetables and raise their animals, including ducks, turkeys and geese. The intent, he said, is for the farm to be completely sustainable.

“We want all the animals to be free range and have green grass to eat every single day,” he added.

Last summer, his pastures were green. This summer they have been brown for weeks.

Hatfield, like others farmers on the island raising animals, has spent considerable time providing water for them, and he’s had to supplement their food far earlier than normal with hay — an additional expense.  His crops have needed extra attention, as well.

“Last year I watered an hour a day. This year it’s been  four hours a day,” he said.

Vashon has several microclimates, and not all farmers have been affected the same way, depending on their practices and the nature and location of their land. But for all, it has been a record-breaking summer. July was the hottest month ever recorded in Seattle, with 10 days breaking 90 degrees. While a nearly typical amount of moisture has fallen this year, spring and early summer were exceptionally dry, with less than 1 inch of rain falling in May and June, a fraction of the 3.5 inches in typical years, according to the Seattle Weather Blog.

At the north end’s Sea Breeze Farm, George Page, whose business is still recovering from a June fire at La Boucherie, said his 50 to 60 pigs have been ranging in forested areas, where there is plenty of shade and food, but it’s been a different story for his 60 cows and sheep.

“The bulk of our pasture is burnt out and desert like,” he said. “We are relying on pastures with a north exposure, shaded by trees.”

He, too, has been supplementing with hay. While he is not happy about this year’s conditions, he noted facing adversity is a part of farming.

“You just adapt,” he said. “That is your job.”

At Burton Hill Farm & Dairy, Rebecca Medeiros says they have made adaptations of their own in caring for their goats, pigs and sheep.

“My oldest son has gotten really strong carrying water to the pigs,” she said.

The goats have often required fresh water three to four times a day.

“If they do not get water, we do not get milk,” she said.

Some of the animals have taken to dealing with the hot, dry situation in their own way.

“Our pigs will break out if they are unhappy,” she said. “They gallop across the field and sit in a little stream in the cool, muddy water.”

With so many farmers in the region contending with the unusual conditions and requiring hay, Hatfield said he expects there will be a shortage by winter, especially since there will not be a second cutting this year in Eastern Washington, as there typically is. This will put further pressure on farmers who raise animals for meat; he added he has heard that many farmers have already started to slaughter their animals because they cannot afford to feed them.

Consumers, he said, will feel the effects.

“I can guarantee by winter that prices for locally raised protein will go up because everyone has sent their animals to slaughter,” he said.

While many of the farmers talk freely about the challenges they have faced, they are also quick to note the bonuses of the hot, dry summer.

At Sun Island Farm on Maury Island, where Joe Yarkin has been raiding his crops to feed his sheep and stressed trees are losing their leaves, it is a banner year for some plants.

“I have the best watermelon crop ever, and the tomatoes are booming,” he said. “I’ve got to say early sweet corn is another benefit of this. There are some years I have not gotten any til September.”

Indeed, several crops are early this year, and some farmers, including Yarkin, question how long the crops will hold out. Some people are harvesting pumpkins, and the winter squash is almost ready.

Yarkin is planning for hotter summers overall, and several forecasts are predicting warmer, dryer temperatures at least through next spring.

“We’ll plant more melons, peppers eggplant, okra and stuff like that,” he said. “We can adapt that way.”

Longtime farmer Michelle Crawford of Pacific Potager at the island’s south end, says she too will make adjustments, if the heat is here to stay.

She has two acres with four green houses, and one greenhouse holds 800 tomatoes. One of her greatest challenges this summer was keeping her greenhouses cool enough. If it gets above 95 for too long, she said, the tomato plants will drop all their flowers, and all that potential fruit will be lost. She spent hours in her greenhouses, misting to save her plants.

“If I had a mister, like I was a big farm, I’d just flip a switch,” she said. “But I am not a big farm; I am a little farm. … It was just me with my hose.”

Typically, she said, she prepares fall starts to sell, but not this year. She was not able to find a window of time cool enough. It means lost income for her, but she said she did not want to sell starts that would have bolted. Now she is telling gardeners to forego starts.

“If people are going to do fall gardening, they should seed stuff into the ground when it is cool enough,” she said.

But for Crawford, too, there was a silver lining: Her peach tree produced hundreds of peaches — a bonanza considering last year it produced 20.

Every farmer has a different story, though, including Jasper Forrester of GreenMan Farm. “Everything is green and lush and happy,” she said last week about her farm north and east of town.

Indeed, a visit showed her property is, in fact, green and lush, a stark contrast to all the surrounding brown.

She has farmed her land for 20 years, she said, digs deep beds, nourishes the soil and covers it all with black plastic, which keeps the weeds out and moisture from the irrigation system  in.

This summer she has watered each zone twice a week for a half an hour at time. That’s it.

Her system works well, she said, and the location of her farm  helps too. She terraces her crops up a hillside that has several springs in it, and against the odds this year, the spring at the top is still running.

Standing near comfrey growing untended near her compost, she recalled how her father used to say that the best fertilizer for a crop is the farmer’s shadow, meaning the best thing a farmer could do is pay attention.

“As long as I am looking at the plants and paying attention, we can handle anything,” she said. “If the crops are happy, the farmer is happy.”

Her message is one she wants to share with backyard growers, many of whom may have grown disheartened this summer and be feeling uncertain about future weather changes.

“You can still grow food,” she said. “You just have to adjust.”