Climate and Ag in the news
-
The Southeast Farm Press released a report earlier this month describing a new variety of cattle produced by the University of Florida Range Cattle REC. The Ona White Angus was developed over two decades of cross-breeding and are similar in meat quality to Black Angus but have white hair with black skin. This will make…
-
Earlier this month, the blog Carbon Brief published the results of a study asking climatologists which research paper was the most influential in the study of climate. The winner of the study was a 1967 paper by Syukuro Manabe and Richard. T. Wetherald, published in the Journal of Atmospheric Sciences entitled ” Thermal Equilibrium of the atmosphere…
-
Bloomberg Businessweek had an interesting article last week on the rapid depletion of the Ogallala Aquifer, a huge underground water source that feeds agricultural irrigation in most of the central Plains. The aquifer is being rapidly depleted by overuse in many places, leading farmers to consider the need to switch from corn to less water…
-
The Association of American Geographers (AAG) recently posted an article about the future of California’s drought. They point out that even after multiple dry years, the rains will come back, and if El Nino is as strong as forecast this coming winter, they will return with a vengeance. The writer describes the situation this way:…
-
The National Wildlife Foundation recently released a new report on the importance of soil quality in producing sustainable agriculture. The report is entitled Can Soil Save Us? Making the Case for Cover Crops as Extreme Weather Risk Management. In the report it details the impacts healthy soil can have on reducing the effects of extreme weather,…
-
The Beyond the Data blog from the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI, formerly NCDC) has another excellent entry this week. Jake Crouch describes the evolution of the four-year Texas drought from start to finish. You can read the story at https://www.climate.gov/news-features/blogs/beyond-data/reflections-really-big-drought. The article concludes by stressing the importance of collecting quality data for monitoring climate.
-
The NOAA climate summary for June 2015 was released this morning. It shows that for the nation as a whole, this past June was the second warmest on record (after June 1933). You can read the summary information now at https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/summary-info/national/201506. The full report will be released on July 13.