Climate and Ag in the news
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The New York Times posted an interesting article on the changing nature of droughts in Kenya and other parts of Africa. According to trends over the last thirty years, droughts are becoming more frequent and are getting worse. This is impacting livestock producers there, who are having a more difficult time feeding and maintaining their…
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The Douglasville (GA) Patch has an interesting article about using goats as landscape tenders this week. You might have heard of cities using goats to clean up unwanted weeds in difficult terrain. In this case, the US Army Corps of Engineers is using a herd of 16 goats, known as the “Chew Crew”, to maintain…
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Drought conditions in parts of the US are affecting the expansion of beef cattle herds due to lack of feed and adverse growing conditions, according to an article in AgWeb this week. Drought from last summer in the High Plains and continuing drought through fall and winter in the southwestern US, including Texas, have impacted…
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EarthSky posted a request from NASA to help with a citizen science project to observe clouds across the country. According to the story, “from March 15 through April 15, citizen scientists of all ages can make up to 10 cloud observations per day using the free GLOBE Observer app (get the app here or at your phone’s app store).…
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Bloomberg.com has an interesting article this week about how natural disasters are costing farmers billions of dollars a year in damage to infrastructure, loss of livestock and crops, and challenges in getting food to markets. While the story discusses trends in natural disasters over time, I think another consideration is that producers are now more…
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In addition to the impacts of the recent frost on Georgia peaches, blueberries have also been impacted by the cold temperatures. Farmers who used frost protection by irrigation or other means largely escaped damage but those who did not use frost protection are still assessing their losses. You can read more in The Packer here.
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The recent freezes that have affected north and central Georgia have caused a loss of peach blossoms of up to 30% in some areas, according to WSB-TV in Atlanta. This year, peach farmers were feeling hopeful after a cold late December and January gave the trees plenty of chill hours, unlike the past two winters.…