Updated Vegetative Maps Show Latest Crop Conditions
Satellite imagery shows how 2011 crop is progressing ahead of USDA data.
Compiled by staff
Published: May 19, 2011
Farm Futures has partnered with the Ecology and Agriculture Spatial Analysis Laboratory (EASAL) at Kansas State University to bring these maps to you. Each map is composed from satellite data taken over a two-week period. The EASAL maps show current vegetative health for the past two weeks and compare vegetative health with the previous two-week period, with the previous year and with the long-term average. Green reflects healthy vegetative development, while brown reflects a lack of healthy vegetative biomass production.
This graphic shows seasonal greening across much of the eastern third of the nation, with the exception of areas that have been exceptionally cool and/or wet in the eastern Midwest and along the lower Mississippi River Valley. Greening continues along the West Coast as well.
Vegetative health is much better than average over the Southeast, as well as the Inter-Mountain West. However, intense drought has clearly reduced vegetative growth in the central and southern Plains, relative to average.
A warmer and drier weather pattern allowed significant green up in the central and northwestern Midwest, while the Flint Hills of eastern Kansas began to green up as well. However, conditions deteriorated over the past couple of weeks in the central and southern Plains as well as the southern Delta region.
Vegetative health is much poorer than the previous year due to drought in the central and southern Plains, while a cool wet spring has hindered growth relative to the previous year in the eastern Midwest. Vegetative growth exceeds year ago levels in areas of the Southeast, as well as the Inter-Mountain West.
This graphic shows the average vegetative health for this time of year.
Permalink: Click here
Tagged: Drought, farm, farm futures, biomass production
|