By Brent Shaw, VP of Weather Content and Customer Success, Iteris
Editor’s note: Brent Shaw, who is a member of AgGateway’s PAIL irrigation project, recently published a blog that may be of interest to AgGateway readers. Below are excerpts, and a link to the full blog, which ran last month in PrecisionAg magazine. Thanks for mentioning AgGateway, Brent!
It’s fascinating to see how modern technology has helped us increase our agricultural productivity in areas not otherwise suited for our higher value crops…. Most of us have experienced micrometeorological effects due to small scale variations of the landscape, but with the much larger areas of landscape modification, visible enough to be readily identified from space, I am reminded of research by scientists such as Dr. Roger Pielke, Sr., postulating that landscape changes may be affecting climate regionally, perhaps much more significantly than any effect that atmospheric carbon dioxide content has had on a global scale.
Even as I was preparing this article, a press release came out discussing how a team of MIT scientists show evidence that Midwest summers have been cooler and wetter due to increased corn and soybean production. Just to get this on the record right away, I am not saying any of this is bad, good, or neutral. Our planet is an amazingly complex system of systems that are remarkably designed to interact and feedback with each other in more ways than we will ever understand in our lifetimes. We should apply what we have learned to feed a growing world more effectively while stewarding our most valuable resources such as water.
….My real interest in this area lies in whether or not we can improve our numerical weather prediction models, and thus our short and mid-term weather forecasts, through more accurate input information and improved physics algorithms.
….These results leave me with a couple of key takeaways as we consider the future of agriculture:
We have a lot of work to do and many challenges, from basic science through implementation to the legal challenges, but our need to feed a growing world will get us there as we work together.
Read the full blog here.
March Newsletter Home
New Member Profile: Welcome Nebraska Grain and Feed Association
Leadership Profile: Natasha Lilly
Precision Ag: Agriculture Impacts Weather: The Case for Connected Ecosystems
Member Services: Plug Me In!
Precision Ag: Ag Broadband Coalition Hails Precision Agriculture Connectivity Act
Barcoding: Supply Chains’ Growing Need For Rugged Mobile Devices
AgGateway News: In the News