How Warmer Winters Affect Producers

As the prairies experience a warmer than usual winter, our producers are seeing some positive effects. Farm production extension specialist Shawn Cabak outlines the changes a warmer winter associated with climate change provides.

 

"Some of the weather trends that we're seeing across the prairies are less snowfall, warmer winters, a little more precipitation, and summer temperatures staying similar. Now, when we look at increase in greenhouse gases such as CO2, that's a benefit to crop production. Crops require CO2 for growth. With some of the warmer temperatures we might see higher yielding crops grown, such as corn and soy beans."

 

Cabak notes it could lead to more farmland.

 

"We could see a northward push and expansion of suitable cropping area, improved water-use efficiency because of higher CO2. So, there are a lot of benefits to climate change. There are also some negatives. We could see more severe droughts; we could see poorer rainfall distribution; we might have more pests, because colder weather actually is beneficial for insect disease and weed control."