04/14/08 Climate change impacts on Idaho ag

University of Idaho agronomist Juliet Windes says global warming will change Idaho agriculture in the next couple of decades and some of the changes are not so good. WINDES "There's a couple of pests that we're really worried about that if they over winter more and become established quicker earlier in the spring and if that cold temperature in the winter time isn't there to kill a lot of our pests then we'll have earlier disease, earlier insect infestation." That could mean the potential for late blight in potatoes, stripe rust in wheat and barley or aphids moving into higher elevations. But on the other side, there are some global warming advantages. WINDES "The ability of grow a more diverse array of crops and crop rotation has always been a problem for a lot of our small grains growers. So if we could grow a bit of a more diversity we could help break some of the disease and pest cycles that we currently have." Windes says it's difficult to predict the totality of global warming but she says now is the time to prepare especially with our water priorities in light of many years of reduced winter snowfall and less storage water. She says conservation is the key to our state's water situation. More about that tomorrow. Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott