Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Ag Weatherman Murdered

Weather is by far the most influential factor Mother Nature has to throw at Ag producers. It impacts planting date and harvest. It influences diseases and the management of them. Chill hours or lack of can make or break a peach crop. Heat and drought can both affect peanut quality.

The list goes on and on.

The University of Georgia had an ag weather network which is used widely by farmers. It is also used as an indicator for golf course condition. Even Georgia Power uses it to determine peak usage.

The information found at the weather web site is not available in a usable form with prediction models and so forth at any other place.

So then why is it the University of Georgia would make the decision to kill this beneficial initiative? It cost far less than the benefit it has demonstrated.

All I can say is this is a heck of a way to spur the economy by destroying a valuable tool farmers use to maintain productivity and profitability.

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