Drought
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The Southeast Farm Press ran a video and written story earlier this week on the three weather catastrophes that hit South Carolina this year–frost, drought and flooding rains. The late spring frost cut peach production somewhat, while the drought cut yields of several crops. When the flooding rains came in early October, they wiped out…
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CBS News had an interesting slide show this week on impacts of the California drought on agriculture and the environment that you might not have thought of. For example, it is becoming difficult to find any grass-fed beef in the region because there is no grass for the cattle to eat. And chili peppers are…
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The latest Drought Monitor was released this morning. It shows that drought and abnormally dry conditions were cut by more than half across the region in response to the recent rainy period. The only remaining drought in the region is a small area of moderate drought in southwest Georgia and the panhandle of Florida near…
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The food magazine Zagat published a list of ten things that you may not know about the California drought, including several impacts on agriculture there. The website here also provides a link to a four-episode documentary they’ve produced on the impacts of drought on vintners, livestock producers and crop farmers.
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National Public Radio had an intriguing story about a hay farm in Arizona that is owned by a Saudi dairy company and how it is affecting local groundwater levels. “That dairy company, named Almarai, bought the farm last year and has planted thousands of acres of groundwater-guzzling alfalfa to make that hay. Saudi Arabia can’t…
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This week’s Drought Monitor shows a small area of severe drought (D2) returning to the south coast of Alabama after continuing dry conditions there. Moderate drought also expanded across the state last week. Rainfall is expected to return to the area in the next seven days, which may help alleviate the dry conditions.
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While most people have been focused on the wet conditions in the Carolinas and Virginia which eliminated a lot of drought last week, other areas of the Southeast have been getting drier. Today the National Drought Monitor increased moderate drought in a small area of south-central Georgia and the western counties of Alabama due to…