Current Farm Report 8-11-12 FOCUS: Animal and Fish Die-off Due to Drought

[link to www.agweb.com]

^^^the weekly from agweb

crops are coming in early...what can be salvaged...they are saying could be the earliest crop since 1987.



[link to www.kcrg.com]

aug. 8, 2012

Farmers Seeking Hardier Breeds to Cope with Drought

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Cattle are being bred with genes from their African cousins who are accustomed to hot weather. New corn varieties are emerging with larger roots for gathering water in a drought. Someday, the plants may even be able to "resurrect" themselves after a long dry spell, recovering quickly when rain returns.

Across American agriculture, farmers and crop scientists have concluded that it's too late to fight climate change. They need to adapt to it with a new generation of hardier animals and plants specially engineered to survive, and even thrive, in intense heat, with little rain.



[link to thinkprogress.org]

Photos: Animals Struggle To Beat The Heat

By Climate Guest Blogger on Aug 12, 2012 at 11:01 am



[link to indianaeconomicdigest.com]

A cow and her calf are herded into the auction arena Saturday at the Springville Feeder Auction. Some farmers in southern Indiana have sold their entire herds because their fields are barren, ponds and streams have shriveled and buying feed is too expensive. See more photos and listen to an audio slideshow of the cattle auction at HeraldTimesOnline.com/video.



[link to magblog.audubon.org]

Droughts Kill Thousands: Fish, Mussels, Birds, and Deer
Categories:

By Catherine Griffin
08/06/2012


Martin Hamel from the University of Nebraska Lincoln received a text from his airboat mechanic on a Monday morning—there had been a large fish kill on the Platte River, a waterway that winds its way through Nebraska and past towns such as Louisville and Ashland. The next day, Hamel’s fears were confirmed. He and a team of others found the bodies of sturgeon and other fish spread across the muddy bottom of what had once been a flowing river. Partially eaten by scavengers and left to rot in the blazing sun, most of the fish were difficult to identify. Yet the team did find one fish that had been tagged five years before—it was an endangered pallid sturgeon, a fish that had originally been stocked into the Missouri River.....


As drought conditions continue, though, water levels keep dropping. Farmers clamor for irrigation for drooping crops while the FWS tries to keep enough water for endangered species.

Although drought conditions are bad now, George remembers that tougher times might still be coming. “We still have the hottest time of the year ahead of us,” he says.

Last Edited by Anne O'Mally on 08/12/2012 04:48 PM