Minnesotans Vulnerable to Extreme Weather, Climate Disruption

Minnesota -- A national committee of experts in agriculture, climate science, commerce, and disaster relief released its National Climate Assessment (NCA) today. The report is the nation’s foremost comprehensive, peer-reviewed analysis of the impacts of climate disruption, showing us the effects of climate change in Minnesota and across the country.

The report shows the significant toll on our health and wallets that extreme weather is already exacting, and it also makes clear that these impacts will only grow worse if we fail to curb carbon pollution, the main culprit behind climate disruption.

Minnesota is part of the NCA’s Midwest Region, which predicts that direct effects from climate change will include increased heat stress, flooding, drought, and late spring freezes, altering ecosystem and socioeconomic patterns and processes in ways that most people would consider detrimental. Warm-season events, such as the large-scale flooding that occurred in Rush Creek and the Root River in Minnesota in August 2007, and multiple rivers in southern Minnesota in September 2010, are projected to increase in magnitude.

“The report makes it clear that climate disruption threatens Minnesota families and communities’ health and economic security now,” said Michelle Rosier, campaign representative for the Sierra Club North Star Chapter. “It’s time to act on climate in Washington and in Minnesota. Governor Dayton needs to continue to show his leadership on this critical issue. Minnesota families deserve a strong, common-sense plan to protect our health and security.”

“The need to move away from dirty fossil fuels such as coal and fracked gas, the leading sources of climate-disrupting carbon pollution, could not be clearer or more urgent,” said Michael Brune, Executive Director of the Sierra Club. “It’s time that we as a nation end our dependence on fossil fuels and hasten the shift to readily available, cost-effective clean energy sources, like wind and solar. Today’s climate report shows the cost of inaction is far too great.”

More than 240 authors from across the country with diverse expertise helped create the National Climate Assessment. The findings are considered conservative estimates of the impacts of climate disruption.

Nat Ag Stat Service, MN Field Office resumes weekly crop and weather reports

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Beginning today, Minnesota farmers can turn to a vital source for information on their crops and weather by referring to the weekly crop and weather report from the Minnesota Field Office of the United States Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (USDA, NASS). NASS resumes its crop and weather reports at 3:00 p.m. today for the week ending April 1. These weekly reports contain the latest summary information on crop progress, crop conditions and weather across the state from the planting and growing seasons through harvest.  

The reports are posted on Mondays at 3:00 p.m. Central Daylight Time on the USDA, NASS/Minnesota Field Office webpage at http://www.nass.usda.gov/Statistics_by_State/Minnesota/Publications/Crop_Progress_&_Condition/index.asp

and are offered in both written and audio formats.  A “Weekly Crop Report” link is also available on the MDA’s home page at www.mda.state.mn.us under “In the Spotlight.”

The information is published jointly by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) and USDA, NASS.   Similar reports are published in all 50 states, using data collected by a network of county-level reporters. In Minnesota, these reporters are typically a member of the County Food and Agriculture Council.

NDSU Beef Research Report Available

Cattle producers can replace some hay with a limited-intake distillers dried grain supplement without negatively affecting cow or calf performance, North
Dakota State University have researchers found.

They determined that using a self-fed, limited-intake supplement as a forage replacement resulted in late-gestation/early lactation cow performance,
reproductive efficiency and calf performance comparable to that in animals fed an all-hay diet.

NDSU researchers also have discovered that a two-step weaning process may be less stressful for calves than the conventional weaning process, restricting the nutrients supplied to ewes during gestation affects the dams and their offspring negatively, and restaurant goers are willing to pay higher prices for steaks from cattle raised in North Dakota.

The conventional weaning method, which involves removing calves from dams and their mother's milk suddenly, can be very stressful for young calves because they experience a loss of maternal contact, new diets and novel social environments, as well as transportation to new housing facilities.

In the two-step weaning process, producers place anti-suckling nose tags on the calves. These devices allow calves to adjust to being removed from their mother's milk before being separated from their mother.

These are among the findings featured in NDSU's 2011 Beef Cattle and Range Research Report, which is available online at http://tinyurl.com/beef-report.

"The NDSU Beef Cattle and Range Research Report provides valuable information to producers and beef cattle industry personnel on the most recent beef cattle research conducted by NDSU faculty, scientists, staff and students," says Kendall Swanson, an associate professor in the Animal Sciences Department and the publication's coordinator.

The report also includes articles about NDSU's new Beef Cattle Research Complex, the results of the 2009-10 Eastern Dakota Cattle Feedout project, research suggesting that cattle harvested with the kosher method produce less tender meat, and an analysis of using cattle shows as a way to identify breeding stock for the beef industry.