If you're a frequent Farmers Market or Meadowlark customer, you know Second Street Farm. Their beautiful flower bouquets and equally as beautiful vegetables adorn the shelves. They also have the happiest cattle—each named by their two girls. The dynamic duo of Pat and Bailey Brennan have been cultivating this the farm and establishing a strong Lander following for the past several years.
In the farm's March newsletter, Bailey named some concerns for the upcoming growing season due to the warm winter and lack of precipitation. So we decided to sit down with her to see how they're doing and ways that they're adapting.
This interview was conducted on June 22, 2026.
Owners of Second Street Farm, Pat and Bailey Brennan, and their dog Samson.
LCAN: What drew you to farming and to Lander?
BB: Mostly I love being outside. I wanted to be able to have a profession that allowed me to be outside and work with my hands and that would be challenging physically and mentally. It turns out this work is emotionally challenging as well, which I didn't quite anticipate. I also just love growing food for people. It feels very foundational, very fundamental.
As for why Lander, I grew up in Wyoming and knew that this is where I wanted to be. After getting some experience on other farms, I knew that I had found my purpose. So my husband, Pat, and I started looking for a place where the climate wasn't quite as intense as in Jackson and where there was an established market or potential customer base. We had our eyes on Sheridan and Cody, but I liked how close Lander was to our family in Jackson. Then, we found this spot and the rest is history. We moved to the farm in August of 2019 and started raising poultry that year. The following year we started the vegetable garden and then cows a couple years after that.
LCAN: What is the general make up of your farm operation?
BB: Probably half is vegetables and flowers, a quarter is beef, and then we board horses in the winter for a couple outfits in Jackson, which winds up being the remaining 25 percent. All of our market now is pretty much in Lander, besides the horses. We've been taking some flowers and beef over to Jackson, but not a ton. We’ve thought about selling in other communities, but Lander continues to buy everything we can grow. We've also made the conscious decision to keep leaning into selling everything at Lander.
Second Street Farm flower bouquets.
LCAN: In the Second Street Farm March newsletter, you wrote that it was, "the warmest winter on record with no rain in sight." What are some measures you've taken in response to this drought?
BB: We are adapting. This spring, we dug a new well and improved our outdoor garden irrigation. Come later this summer, we'll look to put our cows on leased pasture and will likely need to purchase outside hay. The well that we had been watering the garden with could have gone completely dry. That well was here when we moved in and it effectively watered the garden for six years, but it started to dry up this year. Now we water the yard with it and it will be nice to have as backup, but there's no way we could have relied on it. With this new well we'll almost certainly have water through the growing season for the garden, which is a relief.
For the outside garden plots, we installed more wobbler irrigation heads which are more directed and efficient than the sprinklers we used previously. Right now we water late evening and early morning on an automated schedule. Once we have more time to really work out the kinks in the system, we'll be able to confidently water at night. We are never watering in the middle of the day, which is awesome—it allows us to save resources a little bit. We'll continue to do drip irrigation in the tunnels. The pastures are really burning up right now. We'll probably have half the yield we usually do and that's a combination of having no snow coverage this winter along with the pressure from the cows and horses on the fields. This pressure continued into the spring without any precipitation. We turned the water on as early as we could, but even so, we were two or three weeks late getting water onto the fields. Right now, the plan is to irrigate as much as we can over the next two weeks and then Pat will cut the hay. After that, it really just depends on whether there's water in the river. If we can keep getting water, that would be amazing—but it probably won't happen. Since we've been so light on water, the quality of our pasture will suffer. And it's been really hard on us. Pat irrigates morning and night, so every time he goes out there, it's just soul crushing to watch the pasture decline. So much of it is out of our control.
This heat is impacting hay markets everywhere. Prices are going up because the supply is down. We're already trying to source hay and expecting it to be $300 a ton, which is more than we've ever paid for it. So, for the first time ever, we will probably have to look for more pasture for the cows. We want to really avoid selling the cows, but it’s a last ditch option. We've put a lot.of work into building that herd and being selective about the bulls we turn in and which cows we cull and keep.
Second Street cows on early pasture.
LCAN: Is there a policy or water management practice you wish was in place to help local farmers?
BB: Really, I think the emphasis should be on using water to grow food first. Here in Wyoming, a majority of agriculture is alfalfa and sugar beets—we ship in the rest of our food. There isn't much in the way of fruit and vegetable production. And while it is hard, it’s also possible. The alternative is shipping food from California or Arizona or even outside of the country during the off seasons.
When we put the new well in this spring, I had this heartache. I really paused to think about if we are entitled to use this water above other uses. And, while I still have some trepidation about using water to grow flowers, the vast majority of people go to the grocery store and buy food or flowers that are grown hundreds or thousands of miles away. If we’re talking about carbon footprints and climate change, I was like, no, I feel confident that this is a very good use of water and we do our best to use it responsibly.
LCAN: If your farm is passed down to your kids, what do you want to leave them?
BB: Pat and I only want them to farm if they really want to. If they did want to farm, I'd hope that we would have been good enough stewards that they have something to continue to farm.
I think that, in our more pessimistic moments, we wonder if it will always work to farm here. Given the changes we're seeing in climate, that's a real question. But we're very stubborn, so we're gonna try. And the thing that has surprised us most about the farm is the community that has grown around it. Raising our kids in that community has been so special and I would hope that it would be something they continue to foster—whether it's a farm or not.
Harvest day at Second Street Farm.
LCAN: Is there anything else you'd like to note?
BB: I’ll just stress the importance of local food security. If we look at the Colorado river basin, where most of the food we eat is grown, there may not be enough water anymore. We have come to rely on agriculture from this water-stressed region in a way that may be pretty detrimental in the future. We should be finding ways to be more resilient—to use the resources we have locally in a way that's responsible and efficient. To grow food for ourselves and for our community—it is important and needs to be done on a bigger scale than just here and there.
We welcome more farmers in our area to achieve this. We may not put Safeway out of business, but let's put a dent in. Sometimes after a harvest I'm like, oh my God, how are we gonna sell all of this? But I’m always surprised and appreciative of the people who come out to support local food and farmers. And still, people go to Safeway and buy groceries every day so there’s definitely a larger market—it's just shifting mindsets about where they find their food. There's a lot more room for other farmers there.
And farming in Lander, Wyoming can be a lonely venture. Having other farmers to commiserate with can be really helpful.
This spring, we visited the farm I worked at in Vermont. There's practically a farm on every corner. It’s such a strong farming community out there. I remember the farm owner borrowing and lending tools or having conversations about the weather at the farmer's market—just sharing resources and information. It’s also nice to have a community to lean on that really understands what someone is going through. The year I was there, a hurricane pushed inland and one farm got completely wiped out. The other farmers all came to offer support to help them through the season.
So yeah, we'd welcome more farmers.
I’ve shopped with Second Street Farm from the first market they sold at, unless we are out of town we make Saturday morning a commitment, and are usually the first in line. I know I’m getting quality produce and love not having to use the grocery store, it’s a sad day when market ends. Second Street Farm has made a huge difference in our lives!