"Field Working Days" - Learn The Phrase, Because US Farmers Will Have Fewer Of Them
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“Everything else flows from field working days,” says Adam Davis, an ecologist for the US Department of Agriculture and a crop scientist at the University of Illinois. “If you’re not able to work, everything else gets backed up. Workable days will determine the cultivars, the cropping system and the types of pest management practices you can use. We’re simply asking, ‘Can you get in to plant your crop?’”
The scientists report in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS One that they started with computer models that could match past climate data with field working days for Illinois. They then extended their research into the future, matching nine crop districts with two forecast time periods, mid-century and late century, and three climate scenarios in which the changes range from mild to extreme.
The indicators are that tomorrow’s farmers will face some tricky choices when it comes to planting corn: April and May in Illinois could be too wet to work the fields. “We’re predicting warmer and wetter springs, and drier, hotter summers,” Dr Davis says.
“The season fragments and we start to see an early-early season, so that March starts looking like a good target for planting in the future. In the past, March has been the bleeding edge; nobody in their right mind would have planted then. But we’ve already seen the trend for early planting. It’s going to keep trending in that direction for summer annuals.”
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http://climatenewsnetwork.net/americas-farmers-face-uncertain-future/
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