Crops
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The Christian Science Monitor published a story earlier this month that describes the efforts of some scientists to improve drought resistance in plants by changing their ability to regulate water use. The hope is that by changing the way plants respond to moisture stress, they may be able to alter their behavior when water is limited…
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The drought situation in California continues to be a concern to farmers across the US because of its impacts on fruit and vegetable markets as well as dairy. In spite of hopes for a recovery this year due to El Nino and heavier than normal rainfall in December, since then rainfall in California has been…
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The University of Minnesota’s Institute of the Environment published a research article this month in Nature Communications which shows how much of the crop yields of maize, rice, soybeans, and wheat depend on the impacts of the climate. In the study the researchers determined that historically 1/3 of the yield variability of the four crops…
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The preliminary summary for climate conditions in the Southeast for January is in, and shows that for most of the region, temperatures were cooler than normal and precipitation less than normal. For precipitation, the exception was eastern North Carolina, which was impacted by the coastal storms which developed in the Atlantic and tracked up the…
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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 already, but let me briefly…
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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 the Black Sea, and it…
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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 Jan. 21, the U.S. Department…