Farm Bureau and Record Warm Year

Farm Bureau and Record Warm Year


American Farm Bureau Convention and 2012 Record Warm Year,
I’m KayDee Gilkey with today’s Northwest Report.

Nearly 6,000 Farm Bureau members will gather in Nashville this weekend for the organization’s 94th annual meeting. For participants there will lots to do like meet up with old friends, prioritize policies and hear some interesting top notch speakers like USDA secretary Tom Vilsack and Mark Kelly, retired Navy Captain, astronaut and husband of former Congresswoman Gabrielle Gifford.

American Farm Bureau President Bob Stallman shares

Stallman: “ I’m sure we’ll have some discussion of renewable fuels and the fuel verses feed issue. Regulatory issues will always be high on the agenda. Given the possibility this time that we may actually have significant movement in the U.S. Congress on the issue, immigration reform and how we have an adequate guest worker program will probably be another important topic.”

Well it is official, 2012 was the warmest year on record for the contiguous United States according to scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The average temperature was 55.3 degrees F, 3.2 above normal and a full degree higher than the previous record in 1998. 2012 was the driest year on record for the U.S. as well, with 26.57 inches of average precipitation, which is 2.57 inches below average. This created an ideal environment for wildfires in the West, which burned 9.2 million acres -- the third highest amount ever recorded. With 60 percent of the country still gripped with drought, if there isn’t some changes it will continue to wreck havoc in 2013.

Forecasters are reluctant to predict another record breaking heat year for the U.S., but there are some signals to watch Gary Crawford has more.
(USDA Report)

Thanks, Gary. That’s today’s Northwest Report. I’m KayDee Gilkey on the Ag Information Network. 

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