09/01/08 Agricultural impacts from global warming

Grain and oilseed crops will mature more rapidly. Livestock will be adversely affected by higher temperatures. Weeds could grow at a faster rate and there's likely to be more forest fires. Those are some of the findings in a report on climate change from USDA and the federal government in a partnership with universities and laboratories. Jerry Hatfield of the National Soil Tilth Research Laboratory says the report reflects long term projections and impacts from climate change. HATFIELD "The scope on this report is really about the next fifty years that we're really quite certain about and then we make inferences as to what happen if we go into the next hundred years." Hatfield says there are three aspects of climate change that are necessary to set a foundation for the study; rising temperatures, rising CO2 and increases in rainfall variability. HATFIELD "We know that we are in a period of increasing CO2, that we are in a period of increasing temperatures and we are in period of increasing variability in rainfall. Those signals are very evident." One of the things this annual report does not do is make recommendations. In Hatfield's words, 'there are parts of this puzzle that need to be brought together in terms of a strategic plan.' The report underwent expert peer review by 14 scientists through a Federal Advisory Committee formed by the USDA. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott