SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
CleanTechnica reports
The "flash drought" that came out of nowhere this summer in the US High Plains, afflicting Montana and the Dakotas the worst, has already destroyed more than half of this year's wheat crop, going by some recent field surveys. Considering that the region is now one of the top wheat-growing regions in the world, the damage is very notable.
These so-called flash droughts are expected to become considerably more common over the coming decades as the climate continues warming and weather patterns continue changing.
[...] Something that's interesting to note here is that 2011, only 6 years back, was actually one of the wettest years on record in eastern Montana. Those sorts of rapid swings between extreme precipitation and flooding on the one hand, and extreme flash droughts on the other, are only going to become more common from here on out. Eventually, most of the agriculture in the region will have to cease.
Grist calls this a Cereal Killer.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by HiThere on Thursday August 10 2017, @10:35PM (1 child)
That's reasonable, though I don't know those particular crops. The thing is, the weather is less predictable than it used to be. You can't really count on it being either dryer or wetter. What you need is land with good drainage and crops with deep roots. Some of those you are recommending probably fit this description, but so do many others. But the plants that fit it aren't annuals, which find deep roots too expensive to grow, which means you need to drastically alter your approach to farming. Only plough very rarely, e.g. And that means you need some kind of ground cover that doesn't need plowing. Sometimes it can be the main crop itself, other times it needs to be something else, like pasture. Clover, alfalfa, vetch, that kind of thing makes a good pasture with roots that can improve the soil...but consider carefully to pick something that works in your local area AND works with your main cash crop. Some crops object to a harvester taking off their tops, others don't care.
FWIW, my brother plants rye for pasture so he won't need to water it, but this year the rain came at the wrong time, so he only got about half the growth he expected....and had trouble planting in the low lying fields because they were too muddy when it was time to plant. Even when you try to use the reasonable considerations, weather can betray you.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by t-3 on Friday August 11 2017, @12:21AM
In some cases, just planting /differently/ can make a big difference. I remember reading a study about how planting corn deeper than the recommended 1" prevented losses due to both drought and excess rain because the only the top few inches of soil get drowned due to hydrostatic equilibrium, and deeper-planted corn (even modern varieties - they ran test plots in the dakotas) doesn't have much problem coming up through several inches or more of soil (it was inspired by the planting traditions of natives in the western deserts of the US who often planted 12-18" deep IIRC).