Slate magazine’s website had an ominous article today about the drought in California, which has gotten even worse in recent weeks after a wet start to the winter. Last year California’s temperature was more than 2 degrees higher than the previous record due in part to the drought, and this…
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A recent article on Craftsmanship.net describes the work that is being done by California ranchers to improve carbon storage in the soil of his pastures using judicious application of compost to the land. This has often been discussed but no carefully calibrated studies to determine the effectiveness of the treatment…
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I spent the day down in Tifton attending the UGA Cotton Growers Workshop and Cotton Association meeting. Lots of good information and interesting people to talk to! I presented two sessions on the climate of 2014 and the outlook for 2015. I’ve posted my summary for 2014 on this blog…
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One of the two USDA projects I am involved in (and who help sponsor this blog), Animal Agriculture in a Changing Climate, has a blog called “Considering Climate”. David Schmidt, the blog’s author, published a short commentary today by Dr. Larry Jacobson, one of the project leaders, on some insights…
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The strong storm that has affected the northeastern US this week has caused minimal problems for most dairy farmers in that region. Forecasts of the storm ahead of time allowed milk producers and haulers to reroute their trucks around the areas with the worst hazards, and the few dairies that…
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The Modern Farmer had a fascinating article this week on the production of tea in Turkey. According to the article, the people of Turkey consume more tea per capita than any other country in the world. To provide all this tea, Turkey started growing tea along the eastern shore of…
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The Packer noted that bad weather has affected supplies of watermelons from Mexico this year. They reported that volumes are down quite a bit from earlier in the season due to cold weather, which has delayed the ripening of the crop. Supplies are expected to be short until mid-March. “On…
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