NOAA’s State of the Climate report for the winter season (December through February) and the month of February, state that temperatures were below normal for the contiguous United States. The winter season was wetter than normal; however precipitation in February alone was slightly below average.

Based on data going back to 1895, the monthly analyses, prepared by scientists at NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C., are part of the climate services that NOAA provides to businesses, communities and governments so they may make informed decisions to safeguard their social and economic well-being.

In Grand Island, temperatures for December-February averaged 4.7 degrees below normal, while precipitation averaged 0.37 of an inch above normal for the three month period. Nearly 40 inches of snow fall was recorded during the three month period in Grand Island.

Temperature and precipitation highlights:

• For the winter season, 63 percent of the country experienced below normal temperatures.
• In contrast to this national trend, Maine experienced the third warmest winter.
• February’s average temperature was 32.4 degrees F, which is 2.2 degrees below the long-term average.
• Cold air in the wake of several reinforcing Arctic air masses dominated much of the United States during February, creating temperatures that were much-below average in the Deep South and below average in the Plains and mid-Atlantic states. Both the South and Southeast climate regions experienced their seventh coldest February on record. Meanwhile, warmer-than-average temperatures dominated the Northwest and Northeast climate regions.
• Florida had its fourth coldest February, Louisiana its fifth coldest, and Alabama, Georgia and Texas each had their sixth coldest. It was the seventh coldest February in Arkansas, while both Mississippi and South Carolina experienced their eighth coldest.
• Precipitation for the winter season was above average while it averaged slightly below the long term mean for the month of February.
• The season-long wet spell was notable for the Southeast, as Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina each had their eighth wettest winter. Precipitation was also much above normal for South Dakota, Virginia, New Jersey and Maryland. Wyoming and Idaho experienced their eighth and ninth driest winters, respectively.
• Regionally, the active weather pattern in the South, Southwest, and Northeast created above normal precipitation for the month. The Northwest, West North Central, East North Central, and Central climate regions each had below-normal February precipitation. On the state level, New Mexico experienced its seventh wettest February on record. Conversely, Idaho had its seventh driest, and Wyoming its eighth driest

The livestock sector can lead the agricultural economy to higher net farm income, assuming the farm economy benefits from a recovering general U.S. economy.

That analysis tops a 2010 baseline report prepared by the University of Missouri Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI). The 66-page report will be delivered to the U.S. Congress on Tuesday, March 9. The 10-year baseline shows economic possibilities for livestock, crops and biofuels under certain assumptions.

“If jobs—and consumers—return, the agricultural sector will benefit,” said Pat Westhoff, co-director of MU FAPRI. “Higher incomes increase the demand for food, feed, fiber and fuel, supporting farm commodity prices.”

Projected net farm income increases the next two years largely because of stronger livestock prices. “The recovery would mark a major change in direction for the farm economy after a dismal 2009, but 2010 farm income recovers only a third of the ground lost in 2009,” Westhoff said. Net farm income fell by more than $30 billion in 2009, as sharp declines in cash receipts were not offset by modest drops in production costs.

“The outlook depends on more than uncertainty of the current demand picture,” said Scott Brown, FAPRI livestock economist. Many unknowns, especially energy, affect costs for grain and livestock producers.

 Gov. Dave  Heineman signed LB 667 Wednesday, which clarifies fence law, according to the Nebraska Cattlemen.

According to Nebraska Cattlemen, the bill performs four functions.

First, it establishes clear legislative intent changes in resolving fencing disputes at any level. Second, it states that adjoining landowner’s responsibilities are to be borne in just proportion when constructing and maintaining a fence line. Third, it highlights the legal standard of a fence line. Fourth, it removes the statutory demand of zoning from current law.

According to Nebraska Cattlemen, the legislation should “relieve an undue burden on livestock producers when it comes to division fences.

“Nebraska law requires livestock producers to confine their livestock.  Historically, neighbors have maintained division fences regardless if each are confining livestock.  Challenges have arisen when one property owner does not have livestock and has felt they were not required to contribute to the maintenance of a division fence.  This legislation clarifies that the responsibility will be borne in “just proportion” to the benefit received by the fence. For example, a division fence between a cattle grazing property and a cornfield is the responsibility of the livestock owner since he is required by law to confine his livestock. However, there is some benefit to the cornfield property owner helping the maintain the fence that protects his crop.  In a dispute, the new legislation would allow the mediator to apply a just proportion to the maintenance of the division fence rather than it simply being construed that the livestock owner bears the entire burden,” according to the Nebraska Cattlemen.

In the March issue of BioScience, researchers present a sophisticated new analysis of the effects of boosting use of corn-derived ethanol on greenhouse gas emissions.

The study, conducted by Thomas W. Hertel of Purdue University and five co-authors, focuses on how mandated increases in production of the biofuel in the United States will trigger land-use changes domestically and elsewhere. In response to the increased demand for corn, farmers convert additional land to crops, and this conversion can boost carbon dioxide emissions.

The analysis combines ecological data with a global economic commodity and trade model to project the effects of US corn ethanol production on carbon dioxide emissions resulting from land-use changes in 18 regions across the globe. The researchers’ main conclusion is stark: these indirect, market-mediated effects on greenhouse gas emissions “are enough to cancel out the benefits the corn ethanol has on global warming.”

The indirect effects of increasing production of corn ethanol were first addressed in 2008 by Timothy Searchinger and his coauthors, who presented a simpler calculation in Science.

Searchinger concluded that burning corn ethanol led to greenhouse gas emissions twice as large as if gasoline had been burned instead. The question assumed global importance because the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act mandates a steep increase in US production of biofuels over the next dozen years, and certifications about life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions are needed for some of this increase.

In addition, the California Air Resources Board’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard requires including estimates of the effects of indirect land-use change on greenhouse gas emissions. The board’s approach is based on the work reported in BioScience.

Hertel and colleagues’ analysis incorporates some effects that could lessen the impact of land-use conversion, but their bottom line, though only one-quarter as large as the earlier estimate of Searchinger and his coauthors, still indicates that the corn ethanol now being produced in the United States will not significantly reduce total greenhouse gas emissions, compared with burning gasoline. The authors acknowledge that some game-changing technical or economic development could render their estimates moot, but sensitivity analyses undertaken in their study suggest that the findings are quite robust.