agriculture

In a forum on the risks of climate change on California agriculture, experts discussed the potential for complete crop failure—especially among fruit—as winter lows continue to rise, according to the Contra Costa Times.

Rising temperatures and variable rainfall due to climate change will likely pose a major challenge to agriculture, deeming adaptation necessary.

Extreme drought has forced some large Texas ranches to lease grazing land for their cattle in Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota and Montana, according to the LA Times.

Eighty-four percent of Texas cattle raisers report they have reduced their herd size from their three-year average due to the ongoing drought, according to a new survey by the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, with an average herd size reduction of 38%.

The ongoing drought in New Mexico is forcing ranchers to sell their livestock early, according to the Farmington Daily Times.  Ranchers usually sell their cattle in September, but many ranchers have decided to bring their herds to the auction house in August, rather than risk their starvation in coming weeks.

Farmers and ranchers in southeastern New Mexico are suffering due to the extreme, prolonged drought conditions in the area.

Although the monsoon rains have begun to bring relief to drought-plagued Arizona and New Mexico, persistent, extreme drought across almost all of Texas has led the U.S. Department of Agriculture to declare 213 Texas counties as disaster areas.

A new report from the Pacific Institute on the impacts of the 2007-2009 drought in California shows that farmers in the state were able to successfully cope with decreased water supplies.