Tag: Climate

Let’s be matter-of-fact for a moment. Is beef truly bad for the planet? At this year’s annual VFGC Winter Conference we will delve into the topic “The Green Side of Beef: In defense of grassland agriculture.” Our two nationally recognized speakers, Nicolette Hahn Niman and Dr. Alan Franzluebbers, will be diving into the perceived issues […]

Biography: Dr. Liebig works with a multidisciplinary team of scientists to develop soil, crop, and animal management practices for the Great Plains to overcome limitations to productivity while maintaining or enhancing environmental quality.  As a team member, he leads basic and applied research to quantify management effects on soil properties and associated ecosystem services.  In […]

This presentation will introduce the Collaborative Adaptive Rangeland Management (CARM) project and key social and ecological findings developed by the transdisciplinary research team over the past eight years. These include insights into the complexity of social learning, conservation/production trade-offs, and best practices for participatory grazing research methods, illustrating the value of building trust, connection to […]

The US Weather Service has issued its drought prediction for the next 90 days and for some of us the news is not good. In fact, for some of us, the news is even worse than last year when Kathy and I shared this information with you. So here, updated from April of 2020 is […]

Does lemongrass solve the cattle methane problem? Dr. Frank Mitloehner, UC-Davis professor and extension specialist, is known for challenging the FAO’s numbers on cattle and climate change and getting them to change. Here he tells us what’s up with Burger King’s newest ad campaign.

The 100th Meridian is one of only two climate divides in the world. (The other divides the Sahara Desert from the rest of Africa.) Now scientists have found this line is moving east, and that could impact how we farm and ranch in the future.

Here’s a sentence I never thought possible: There’s an interesting book out about the relationship between climate change, economics and policy.  It’s  But Will the Planet Notice? How Smart Economics Can Save the World  by Gurnot Wagner and it looks at what it’s really going to take to make the planet notice our efforts to […]

You are not alone when it comes to frustrations with weather, and with actual changes in the climate.   In the Midwest, growing seasons have lengthened by almost two weeks since 1950. The fire season is now 60 days longer than it was 30 years ago.  With these changes, farmers, ranchers and forest landowners across the country are […]

Strange as it may seem, cattle producers, particularly dairy farmers, have been trying to reduce cow flatus and eructations (farts and burps) for decades now. If they’re thinking about the problem globally, it’s because the methane from these emissions makes a significant contribution to greenhouse gases (see Are Cow Farts Destroying the Planet?). If they’re […]

By using 112 years of data from weather stations across the US, combined with an understanding of what makes a plant begin to grow, scientists are figuring out how to measure changes in growing seasons.

The National Weather Service is trying to help us manage our livestock and pastures by issuing drought forecasts for the United States.  This map can help you as you plan where, when and how many animals to graze, and where other forage might be available.  Most of the drought challenges are now rooted in the western […]