Florida growers can benefit from using the new Climate Indicators Tool on the UF-run AgroClimate site.

The new Climate Indicators Tool is a “web-based tool will help growers reduce risks that come with climate variability,” according to a UF/IFAS blog. The new tool has been added to the AgroClimate site, which is a “a web-based platform designed 15 years ago by Clyde Fraisse, a UF/IFAS professor of agricultural and biological engineering,” according to the blog article. See the details of the new tool below.

Details of the Climate Indicators Tool

According to the article, “Growers can use the new tool to track weather conditions and indicators in places where there isn’t a weather station in the vicinity of their farm, Fraisse said. It’s designed to help agricultural producers in Florida and around the world.”

The article also maintains that the Climate Indicators Tool tracks:

  • “Growing-degree days, also called “heat units.” These are based on the fact that a plant develops only when the average temperature exceeds a base temperature. This can help growers track if crops are developing faster or slower and when certain critical development phases are reached.”
  • “Chill accumulation – Plants need cool temperatures when they’re dormant in the winter so they can resume normal growth in the spring. Scientists call this exposure a ‘chilling accumulation requirement.’”
  • “Temperature-humidity index – the combination of air temperature and humidity that can help quantify heat stress in livestock.”
  • “Climate anomalies, such as the fact that daily minimum temperatures in Florida have been above normal during the last eight to 10 years — a trend that most likely will lower the yield of certain crops.”
  • “Current weather conditions up to the previous day and also compare current observations — for instance, amount of rainfall in the last 15 days — to the historical observations for the same period during the last 40 years.

Griffin Fertilizer is committed to helping both growers and ranchers make sound agronomic and economic decisions in order to maximize the health of their grove and pasture. As a full-service custom dry & liquid fertilizer blender and crop protection product distributor, we will continue our mission to further advance Florida agriculture. For questions -or concerns about your farm or pasture, contact us and one of our team will be in touch.