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Modern Farmer posted an interesting story earlier this month about some work that some North Carolina scientists are doing on how changes in the length of the growing season may affect bees. Of course we are all interested in the health of bees because of their important role as pollinators. You might think that a…
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The US Department of Energy has provided a good 1-page fact sheet on how changes in climate in the Southeast will affect energy use and production across the region in the coming years. You can find it at https://energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2015/10/f27/Southeast.pdf (at least until it magically disappears). If you are in another part of the country, you…
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Vegetable and Specialty Crop News posted a story this week about continuing efforts to determine the losses from Hurricane Irma to blueberry production. Hurricane winds ripped many bushes right from the ground, forcing farmers to replant. New bushes take two years or more to begin production, which costs the farmer in lost income as…
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The latest Drought Monitor released this morning shows small decreases in abnormally dry conditions in most areas of the Southeast except in North Carolina, where some moderate drought was changed to abnormally dry status instead. The only increase in moderate drought was a small sliver of west-central Alabama as the drought in Mississippi expanded slightly…
Posted in: Drought -
In the past three years, olive growers in Europe have experienced blistering heat, heavy rains and an untimely frost. All of these extreme weather events have reduced the production of olive oil from Italy and Spain, leaving buyers to look for new sources in places like Australia and New Zealand (and the Southeast?). The New…
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My first thought when I read the headline above in Conde Nast Traveler was that the butter shortage in France was caused by weather. After all, it’s been hot there and hot cows are unhappy cows and give less milk. (For example, see this article from the Global Weather and Climate Center on the heat…
Posted in: Climate and Ag in the news -
Here’s an interesting story about Dr. Brenda Ortiz, a colleague of mine at Auburn University who studies the impact of weather and climate on crops like wheat and corn. She has a new project with several other scientists in the Southeast to study the expansion of irrigation in Alabama. As the article points out, “In…