Climate and Ag in the news
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One year ago this past week, Hurricane Michael came ashore in the Panhandle of Florida and devastated local agriculture in Florida, Alabama and Georgia. As the Atlanta Journal-Constitution points out, many farmers in this region are still waiting for aid a year later. You can read more here. Southeast Farm Press also has an interesting…
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Because of the drought which is currently affecting the Southeast, including most of Georgia, the GA Department of Agriculture has launched a hay exchange program for farmers who either need hay for their livestock or who have hay to sell. You can read more about it and find the link to the program at https://www.morningagclips.com/gda-announces-hay-exchange-program/.…
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I know some of you like to read about the history of climate and agriculture. Here is an interesting story from Atlas Obscura about the Mayan civilization and how it drained swampland to make irrigated farmland that provided food for their society. They are still finding more places where farmland was created, which indicates that…
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Every fall, deciduous trees in the Southeast (and elsewhere in the country) change color. Every year, we get asked why. The North Carolina Climate Office has a good description at https://climate.ncsu.edu/climateblog?id=302&h=5666e5c1. Will this year’s drought impact the leaf color in the Southeast? WSB addresses that in a recent article here.
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At our special drought webinar this afternoon, over 350 people registered and almost 200 people attended the live webinar. We spent an hour talking about the atmospheric conditions leading up to the drought, the impacts of the drought on agriculture, and the outlook for the next couple of weeks. There was a lot of material…
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As the drought increases, the only things left that are green are often weeds. This is a problem in pastures where weeds might be hazardous to livestock. Alabama Extension provides some comments and tips for what to do when the weeds are the only thing growing in your pastures at https://www.aces.edu/blog/topics/farming/managing-weeds-crucial-during-droughts/.
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After two miserable years in 2017 and 2018 for blueberry producers, with warm weather in the winter reducing chill hours and strong frosts coming just as the blueberry bushes were blooming, this year has been a pleasant surprise for producers. Maria Sellers of UGA provided a look at this year’s crop at https://newswire.caes.uga.edu/story.html?storyid=8139&rss. Most growers…