UK To Host Early Bird Meetings For Grain Crop Producers

Nov 05, 2015

By Jeff Franklin

Grain crop producers can get a jump on planning for next year’s growing season by attending one of the early bird meetings organized by specialists in the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, Food and Environment.

Specialists will review challenges and issues of the 2015 growing season and offer suggestions for better management in 2016.

Meetings are scheduled for Nov. 23 at the Sedalia Restaurant in Graves County, Nov. 24 at the Feed Mill Restaurant in Union County and Dec. 7 at the Hardin County Extension office in Elizabethtown. All meetings begin at 8:00 a.m. local time.

Topics this year include maximizing wheat and soybean yields in double-crop systems, chemicals and biologicals for corn and soybean foliage, seed and soil, a possible “game changer” for controlling problem pigweeds and a crop outlook and risk management for 2016. The meeting concludes at noon with lunch provided by the Kentucky Corn Growers Association, Kentucky Soybean Board and the Kentucky Small Grain Growers Association.

Certified Crop Advisers can receive three continuing education units in the following categories: 0.5 in integrated pest management, 2.5 in crop management, and one in professional development. Pesticide applicators can receive one specific hour credit in category 1a.

Source: uky.edu

Video: Spring 2026 weather outlook for Wisconsin; What an early-arriving El Niño could mean

Northeast Wisconsin is a small corner of the world, but our weather is still affected by what happens across the globe.

That includes in the equatorial Pacific, where changes between El Niño and La Niña play a role in the weather here -- and boy, have there been some abrupt changes as of late.

El Niño and La Niña are the two phases of what is collectively known as the El Niño Southern Oscillation, or ENSO for short. These are the swings back and forth from unusually warm to unusually cold sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean along the equator.

Since this past September, we have been in a weak La Niña, which means water temperatures near the Eastern Pacific equator have been cooler than usual. That's where we're at right now.

Even last fall, the long-term outlook suggested a return to neutral conditions by spring and potentially El Niño conditions by summer.

But there are some signs this may be happening faster than usual, which could accelerate the onset of El Niño.

Over the last few weeks, unusually strong bursts of westerly winds farther west in the Pacific -- where sea surface temperatures are warmer than average -- have been observed. There is a chance that this could accelerate the warming of those eastern Pacific waters and potentially push us into El Niño sooner than usual.

If we do enter El Nino by spring -- which we'll define as the period of March, April and May -- there are some long-term correlations with our weather here in Northeast Wisconsin.

Looking at a map of anomalously warm weather, most of the upper Great Lakes doesn't show a strong correlation, but in general, the northern tiers of the United States do tend to lean to that direction.

The stronger correlation is with precipitation. El Niño conditions in spring have historically come with a higher risk of very dry weather over that time frame, so this will definitely be a transition we'll have to watch closely as we move out of winter.