216-5 Climate Information for Agronomic Decision Tools.

See more from this Division: Special Sessions
See more from this Session: Symposium--Improving Climate Information for Midwestern Crop Production

Tuesday, November 17, 2015: 10:50 AM
Minneapolis Convention Center, L100 A

Dennis Todey1, Jeff Andresen2, James Angel3, Benjamin Gramig4, Pat Guinan5, Chad Hart6, Melissa Widhalm7, Olivia Kellner8, Larry Biehl9 and Dev Niyogi7, (1)South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD
(2)Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI
(3)Illinois State Water Survey, University of Illinois, Champaign, IL
(4)Agricultural Economics, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN
(5)State Climate Office, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO
(6)Department of Economics, Iowa State University, Ames, IA
(7)Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN
(8)Midwest Regional Climate Center, University of Illinois, Champaign, IL
(9)Information Technology at Purdue (ITaP), Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN
Abstract:
The USDA-NIFA funded project Useful to Usable has brought together a unique set of individuals combining climatological, agronomic, economic and social science backgrounds to develop tools for agronomic decision-making. 

One of the main outcomes has been a suite of decision tools usable across the Corn Belt.  The agronomic and economics of these decision tools will be discussed in other parts of the session.  While all have some climate component, several have very specific climate emphases especially using historical climate information.  These include the AgClimate View, Growing Degree Day Tool, and the Climate Patterns Viewing.  One additional tool being deployed uses projected climate information, the Irrigation Decision Tool. 

All the tools seek to apply climatic information to decisions or information corn belt producers need throughout their growing season by combining basic climate information with agronomic needs. 

The GDD tool uses current and historical information to track GDDs across the corn belt and provides a projection through the rest of the season until freezing or black layer.

The Climate Patterns Viewer provides Corn Belt specific composites of several climate patterns (like El Nino) for producers to track what conditions tend to occur in these events.

Agclimate view combines local climatic and yield information for producers to compare current and prior growing seasons.

The Irrigation decision tool provides decision information on the economics of irrigation infrastructure purchase based on future climate projections. 

The tools achieve one of the main goals of the project, to create common corn belt tools for corn producers taking basic climate information converted into decision-making information.

See more from this Division: Special Sessions
See more from this Session: Symposium--Improving Climate Information for Midwestern Crop Production