Climate forecast and prediction product dissemination for agriculture in the United States

A wealth of climate forecast information and related prediction products are available, but impediments to adoption of these products by ranchers and farmers in the Unites States remain to be addressed. Impediments for agricultural applications include modest forecast skill; limited climate predictability; inappropriate forecast scale for site-specific applications; difficulties in interpretation of probabilistic forecasts by farmers and integration into agricultural decision systems; uncertainty about the value and impact of forecast information in multi-variable decision system; and generally low frequency of relevant forecasts. Various research institutions have conducted case-studies of climate impacts on agricultural production systems, particularly impacts of historical ENSO signals in the southeastern United States. A number of studies addressed risk and economic values of seasonal climate forecasts, and others bridged the gap between current forecasting software and products and agricultural applications. These studies attest to the availability and suitability of forecast and impact-prediction software, as well as derived products for agricultural applications. Yet, little attention has been given to operational and application-specific prediction products for general agricultural use, and to effective an