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Bloomberg reported today that the drought in the North China Plain, the second biggest corn producing area in China, has reduced corn yields in that country. This is the first time that corn yields have decreased since 2009. However, this decrease is only down slightly from last year’s record-setting crop. You can read the story in…
Posted in: Climate and Ag in the news -
Yahoo News published an article from Reuters yesterday which noted that many people under the age of 30 have never lived in a world with temperatures below the 2oth century average. The last time that the earth experienced a month with below the long-term average temperatures was February 1985. To read the article, click here. Changes…
Posted in: Climate and Ag in the news -
AgWeb had an interesting article last week on the importance of proper microclimate conditions for maximizing yield in soybeans. A microclimate is a very small climate zone that has distinct characteristics. For example, the sunny and shady sides of your house may have different microclimates which are influenced by differences in direct sunlight, water availability,…
Posted in: Climate and Ag in the news -
The pool of unusually warm water in the eastern Pacific Ocean that was observed earlier this summer has now mostly dissipated without a response from the tropical atmosphere, leaving climatologists wondering if El Nino will occur this winter as predicted earlier. In the strongest El Ninos, the atmospheric signature of El Nino is starting to…
Posted in: Climate outlooks -
Growing Produce released a story on AgroClimate’s s\Strawberry Advisory System, a tool which is available at https://agroclimate.org/tools/strawberry/. The tool takes data such as temperature and leaf wetness and tells growers when to spray fungicide to ward off diseases. By spraying fungicide only when needed, it can save growers significant amounts of time and money by reducing unnecessary…
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Some scientists have proposed reducing the effects of a warming climate by using engineering approaches to combat the effects of increased greenhouse gas concentrations. These approaches include planting more forests, fertilizing the ocean to increase the uptake of carbon through algae growth, and space mirrors to redirect solar energy away from the earth. But…
Posted in: Climate and Ag in the news -
The New York Times has an interesting map which shows the changing drought across the US. You can see the growth and decay of drought in the Texas panhandle as well as the increasing severity of drought in California. Access it here. The text indicates the drought is increasing as a result of global warming,…