Crops
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Physics Today reported this week that due to the warming hole which is seen in the central US, corn yields there are higher than they would be if that area had warmed as much as the rest of the United States. The cooler temperatures improved corn’s performance there. One thing the article did not address…
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Even though Georgia is not one of the top ten pumpkin producing states, we still have about 900 acres in pumpkin production each year. I was interested to read this article in Morning Ag Clips describing pumpkin production in the state. I learned that most pumpkins are grown in the northern part of the state…
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Many farmers in the region have been negatively affected by the dry conditions that were growing across the Southeast until the recent rainfall. In spite of that, they were hard at work trying to harvest crops. In some cases, the dry weather even helped them accomplish their harvest more quickly. This article from Southeast Ag…
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Yale Environment 360 has a really interesting article which describes some of the ways that climate zones are shifting on earth. This has profound implications for agriculture as well as ecosystems because the climate zones (defined by a combination of temperature and precipitation characteristics) determine the kinds of crops you can grow and when you…
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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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One fifth of the world’s calories come from wheat in the form of bread, noodles, and cereal. But rising temperatures and more extremes of precipitation have made it more difficult to grow wheat consistently. This is even more important considering the growth of the population that is likely to depend on wheat for their nutritional…
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With the dry conditions getting worse across Georgia, peanut farmers have been at a loss for what to do with their crops. Do they harvest now in conditions that are not great due to dry, crusty soils or wait for rain to soften up the ground and give the peanuts time to mature? With little…