DEALING WITH CLIMATE CHANGE AND VARIABILITY IN THE GROWING SEASON: A U2U DECISION SUPPORT TOOL FOR CENTRAL UNITED STATES CORN PRODUCERS BASED ON CORN GROWING DEGREE DAYS

James Randal Angel, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Urbana, IL, United States, Dennis Todey, South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD, United States, Ray Massey, University of Missouri Columbia, Agricultural and Applied Economics, Columbia, MO, United States, Melissa Widhalm, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, United States, Larry L. Biehl, Purdue University, Information Technology at Purdue (ITaP), West Lafayette, IN, United States and Jeff Andresen, Michigan State University, Department of Geography, Environment, and Spatial Sciences, East Lansing, United States
Abstract:
Climate extremes are a major challenge for corn producers in the central United States. Among those extremes are wet springs that lead to planting delays, late spring and early fall frosts that can damage crops, and extreme summer temperatures either too warm or too cool. A newly-operational corn growing degree-day (CGDD) tool helps producers manage and adapt to these extremes. For example, a challenge in recent years has been exceptionally wet springs that have led to significant planting delays. Producers have been forced to re-assess their planting strategies on short notice, such as switching to a faster-growing but lower-yielding hybrids. With this pattern of wetter springs projected to continue or worsen in the central United States, the problem will remain and likely get worse. Another example is helping producers identify the risk of early or late frost/freezes. The CGDD tool puts current conditions into a 30-year historical perspective and offers trend projections (based on climatology or forecasts) through the end of the calendar year. Corn, or sometimes called modified, growing degree-days use a temperature base of 10 C (50 F) and a ceiling of 30 C (86 F) and is strongly correlated with the development of the corn crop. This tool was developed as part of USDA-supported U2U Useful to Usable Project for transforming climate variability and change information for cereal crop producers.
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