A new U.S. Ag Department report on climate change says there are likely climate change risks coming that farmers will have to manage.

Bill Hohenstein directs the USDA Climate Change office.  He says,“Agriculture, within the U.S., is highly adaptive. Our farmers have a variety of technologies and practices out there that can help them manage risk and those technologies and practices can also help them manage for climate change.”

Hohenstein says in the early part of this century, through about 2040, they expect a mixed bag of effects on specific commodities, animal agriculture and various regions. The second half of the century sees potentially more negative effects.

“Particularly for regions of the country that are already climate stressed, the areas in the Southwest and Southeast, where high temperatures are likely to dominate the effects. And,” he adds, “The other critical issue that we’ll need to be concerned about is the effects on water and water availability.”

Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack says the USDA has plans it will unfold in the coming months that involve more climate research, best use of technologies, best practices and better use of existing land resources, especially water.

Among their proposed solutions:  Multi-cropping, double cropping, cover crops, integrated operations and agro-forestry.

By Julie Harker: http://brownfieldagnews.com/2013/02/07/new-usda-climate-change-report/

Article by Suzanne Goldenberg from http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/jan/10/drought-damaged-states-poor-outlook

Farmer Matt Johnson pauses while in a dead area of his popcorn crop fields on his family's farm in Indiana. Photograph: Brent Smith/Reuters

A persistent drought held its grip on America’s bread basket on Thursday, with no sign of relief for the four main wheat-growing states.

The poor outlook for winter wheat, which accounts for about 70% of the US crop, has raised fears about further food prices shocks, after widespread failure of last year’s corn and soybean crops.

Conditions in Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, and Texas, which produce about a third of the country’s wheat crop, remained unchanged – virtually the worst on record, according to the US Drought Monitor.

The Obama administration declared large areas of all four states a natural disaster area on Wednesday, because of the persistent drought.

In Kansas, the biggest wheat producer, the entire state is in severe drought. Oklahoma, over the last 60 days, has seen only a small fraction of its typical rainfall.

“Oklahoma has really been just bone dry,” said David Simeral, a scientist at the Western Regional Climate Center who wrote this week’s drought report.

Last year’s temperatures smashed through 118 years of temperature records, registering a full degree Fahrenheit hotter than the previous record.

By mid-July about 62% of the country was stuck in a dry spell, which devastated the corn and soybean crop and threatened to bring shipping on the Mississippi, the country’s busiest waterway, to a halt.

Prices for corn, soybean and wheat rose to record levels.

Six months later, nearly 61% of the country remains stuck in that dry spell.
Government climate scientists, in a conference call with reporters this week, warned the drought was expected to continue, especially across the mid-west and high plains states that produce much of America’s grain, because of climate change.

It is still too early to predict the outcome of this year’s crop. Wheat planted in the autumn goes dormant during the winter. But grain dealers were already warning of severe damage.

“This is the worst that I have ever seen it and I have worked at the co-op for 43 years,” said Rosie Meier, a grain dealer in Great Bend, Kansas. The last time central Kansas saw a good dowsing was in April last year. “If things don’t turn around we would probably only get 20% of the crop,” Meier said.

But rain could still resuscitate the crop. “It is too dang early,” Meier said. “I wouldn’t kiss it goodbye yet.”

To view the article in its original format, visit http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/jan/10/drought-damaged-states-poor-outlook

2012 corn and soybean production wasn’t as bad as some had feared, but one analyst tells Brownfield, 2013 could be a different story.

According to Arlan Suderman, Senior Market Analyst at Water Street Solutions, the big factor will be soil moisture recharging rainfall. Suderman says, “There’s many farmers in the northwestern Midwest, even those with irrigation, that they got this year’s good yields because of the soil moisture profile they had going into the growing season. That moisture isn’t there now – that’s a real legitimate concern.

So what’re the possibilities? As I look at it, if the rains come, it’ll take a lot of rain but it can happen, and we get the trend yields, I think we test December futures support at $4 [per bushel]. If the rains don’t come, then I think we test last year’s highs just below $8.50.”

USDA’s 2013 prospective plantings report is out March 28.

By John Perkins

http://brownfieldagnews.com/2013/01/11/2013-production-depends-on-rain/

Article by P. Scott Shearer from National Hog Farmer:

Congress passed H.R. 8, the American Taxpayer Relief Act (so-called fiscal cliff legislation), to prevent tax hikes on a majority of American taxpayers.  The bill raises income tax rates for individuals making more than $400,000 and for couples making more than $450,000. Included in the bill is a one-year extension of most farm programs in the current farm bill, effective until Sept. 30, 2013. The farm bill extension was the result of fiscal cliff negotiations between Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Vice President Joe Biden. The bill continues direct payments and the current dairy program, which were major issues.  Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), chairwoman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, was critical of extending the farm bill and not dealing with a five-year farm bill. She said, “They not only do not extend all the titles, but they do not include critical disaster assistance.” More details next week.

To see the article in its original format, visit http://nationalhogfarmer.com/business/farm-bill-extended-fiscal-cliff-agreement