- Mar 3, 2006
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This from the Wall Street Journal.
Corn and other crops moving North... along with Land Values.
BTW a temporary cyclical cooling due to solar Minimum, does NOT negate AGW, which will make it less severe, and AGW driven by Greenhouse Gases, will continue both along side AND After that Minimum abates.
A Warming Climate Brings New Crops to Frigid Zones
Longer growing seasons help lead northern farmers to plow up forests for crops such as corn that were once hard to grow in chilly territories
A Warming Climate Brings New Crops to Frigid Zones
LA CRETE, Alberta—The farm belt is marching northward.
Upper Alberta is bitter cold much of the year, and remote. Not much grows other than the spruce and poplar that spread out a hundred miles around Highway 88 north toward La Crete. Signs warn drivers to watch for moose and make sure their gas tanks are filled. Farms have produced mostly wheat, canola and barley. Summers were so short farmer Dicky Driedger used to tease his wife about wasting garden space growing corn.
Today, Mr. Driedger is the one growing corn. So are many other northern-Alberta farmers who are plowing up forests to create fields, which lets them grow still more of it. The new prospect of warmer-weather crops is helping lift farmland prices, with an acre near La Crete selling for nearly five times what it fetched 10 years ago.
One reason is the warming planet and longer growing seasons. Temperatures around La Crete are 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit warmer on average annually than in 1950, Canadian federal climate records show, and the growing season is nearly two weeks longer.
“A few degrees doesn’t sound like much,” said Mr. Driedger, 56, who has farmed for three decades in the area roughly as far north as Juneau, Alaska. “Maybe it doesn’t make such a big difference on wheat or canola, but on corn, it sure does.” In August, he watched a tractor-size tiller yank tree roots from the earth, which were to be piled up and ignited in giant bonfires to create new fields.
AVERAGE ANNUAL TEMPERATURE IN LA CRETE, ALBERTA
1950-2010
[........]
[........]
LAND VALUE, CHANGE FROM PREVIOUS YEAR
. . . . . . . . . CANADA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ALBERTA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . US . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . IOWA
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[......]
Corn and other crops moving North... along with Land Values.
BTW a temporary cyclical cooling due to solar Minimum, does NOT negate AGW, which will make it less severe, and AGW driven by Greenhouse Gases, will continue both along side AND After that Minimum abates.
A Warming Climate Brings New Crops to Frigid Zones
Longer growing seasons help lead northern farmers to plow up forests for crops such as corn that were once hard to grow in chilly territories
A Warming Climate Brings New Crops to Frigid Zones
LA CRETE, Alberta—The farm belt is marching northward.
Upper Alberta is bitter cold much of the year, and remote. Not much grows other than the spruce and poplar that spread out a hundred miles around Highway 88 north toward La Crete. Signs warn drivers to watch for moose and make sure their gas tanks are filled. Farms have produced mostly wheat, canola and barley. Summers were so short farmer Dicky Driedger used to tease his wife about wasting garden space growing corn.
Today, Mr. Driedger is the one growing corn. So are many other northern-Alberta farmers who are plowing up forests to create fields, which lets them grow still more of it. The new prospect of warmer-weather crops is helping lift farmland prices, with an acre near La Crete selling for nearly five times what it fetched 10 years ago.
One reason is the warming planet and longer growing seasons. Temperatures around La Crete are 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit warmer on average annually than in 1950, Canadian federal climate records show, and the growing season is nearly two weeks longer.
“A few degrees doesn’t sound like much,” said Mr. Driedger, 56, who has farmed for three decades in the area roughly as far north as Juneau, Alaska. “Maybe it doesn’t make such a big difference on wheat or canola, but on corn, it sure does.” In August, he watched a tractor-size tiller yank tree roots from the earth, which were to be piled up and ignited in giant bonfires to create new fields.
AVERAGE ANNUAL TEMPERATURE IN LA CRETE, ALBERTA
1950-2010
[........]
[........]
LAND VALUE, CHANGE FROM PREVIOUS YEAR
. . . . . . . . . CANADA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ALBERTA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . US . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . IOWA
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