Drought
-
The very wet April followed by the very dry May have caused a variety of agricultural impacts in the Southeast. Here is a sampling of what I have seen in news stories. The Southeast Farm Press noted that the dry conditions in early May came at a bad time for pre-applied herbicides to activate. Weeds…
Posted in: Climate and Ag in the news, Crops, Drought, Extension agent outreach, Livestock, Uncategorized -
The latest National Drought Monitor was issued this morning and shows that abnormally dry conditions expanded from 20 to 34 percent of the region, mostly in the western Carolinas and Virginia. Dry conditions decreased in Alabama, but moderate drought reappeared in south-central Georgia, which has missed most of the rain this past month. Updated drought…
-
Four years of drought in California and the prospect of even longer droughts in the future has Californians seeking for insight into how to deal with these longer droughts. Australia has survived their “Big Dry”, which lasted from the 1990s through 2012, and are a natural source of information on how to cope with long-term…
-
Tengri News reported on the mass death of over 90,000 rare Saiga antelope in Kazakhstan. In the past ten days, the antelope have died at an alarming rate, leading to the death of almost 40 percent of the known population of these migratory antelope. Scientists are still trying to determine the cause of so many…
-
The latest National Drought Monitor map is out and shows only a very slight increase in dry conditions across the Southeast. Abnormally dry conditions expanded from 17.7 to 19.0 percent of the Southeast, while moderate D1 drought in the southern tip of Florida also expanded slightly. The dry conditions were reduced in Alabama but expanded…
-
Harvest Public Media posted a story online today about the “elusive” impacts that the California drought has had on Midwestern farmers. According to the story, so far benefits to the Midwestern farmers have been limited in spite of the four year drought in California because the CA farmers are mining ground water to keep their…
-
AgWeb posted an article this week on changes in the dairy industry across the US. California is still the number one dairy producer, but dairy production has remained flat in California due to the 4-year drought. Growth in other states has been significant, particularly in places where processing capacity has increased. Colorado, Kansas, Texas, Michigan and Indiana are…