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Weather extremes the “new normal” for Michigan farmers

The vice president of the Michigan Agribusiness Association says conditions this growing season reinforce the notion weather extremes are here to stay.

Tim Boring suggests 2017 will be remembered for big bursts of rain and long stretches of dryness.

“The second half of the production season was really dry through a lot of areas of the state.  Full drought conditions really emerged in mid-September.  And as we look at what we got from rain this last weekend, we’re back above average for what we see the whole year.”

Boring says farmers need to plan for what he calls a “new normal.”

“The rain we do tend to get today is just more extreme and more concentrated when we get it.  When you look at the big picture, we’re wet as a whole, but we had this glaring hole in the middle of our production season that was really dry.”

Spring rains slowed planting across Michigan, but crop development and harvest progress have advanced rapidly this fall because of abnormal warmth and a lack of moisture.

 

*Audio courtesy of Agriculture Leaders of Michigan*

 

 

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