Ree Wheatgrass: Its Culture and Use

Ree wheatgrass, Agropyron intermedium and A. trichophorum, is a new pasture and hay grass released by the South Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station. It is closely related botanically to slender wheatgrass, Agropyron trachycaulum, and western wheatgrass, Agropyron smithii, both native to South Dakota and crested wheatgrass, Agropyron cristatum, native to the cold, dry plains of Russia and Siberia

Rancher, A Low Hydrocyanic Acid Forage Sorghum

Rancher sorghum has the lowest hydrocyanic acid content of any named forage sorghum variety in production. It contains about one-third of the hydrocyanic acid content of the low-acid Dakota Amber 39-30-S released in 1937 and only about one-tenth of the hydrocyanic acid content of commercial varieties (Table I). It was developed by the South Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station from a cross of the low hydrocyanic acid strain 39-30-S and a high acid strain 19-30-S and back crossed with the low acid strain 39-30-S. Both strains were selected from Dakota amber variety

Dual, an Early Grain and Forage Sorghum

Dual is a new grain and forage sorghum for South Dakota which grows taller than either Reliance or Norghum. It was developed to provide the stockman with a grain sorghum having a high yield of sweet, juicy forage for both fodder and silage. Tests conducted at several locations on widely different soil types and under varying climatic conditions show Dual is well adapted to the sorghum growing areas of the state. About 8,000 pounds of Dual seed were released by the South Dakota State College Agricultural Experiment Station to the County Crop Improvement Associations in the spring of 1958

An agent-based approach to integrated assessment modelling of climate change

There is an ongoing discussion concerning the relationship between social welfare and climate change, and thus the required level and type of measures needed to protect the climate. Integrated assessment models (IAMs) have been extended to incorporate technological progress, heterogeneity and uncertainty, making use of a (stochastic) dynamic equilibrium approach in order to derive a solution. According to the literature, the IAM class of models does not take all the relationships among economic, social and environmental factors into account. Moreover, it does not consider these interdependencies at the micro-level, meaning that all possible consequences are not duly examined. Here, we propose an agent-based approach to analyse the relationship between economic welfare and climate protection. In particular, our aim is to analyse how the decisions of individual agents, allowing for the trade-off between economic welfare and climate protection, influence the aggregated emergent economic behaviour. Using this model, we estimate a damage function, with values in the order 3% - 4%for 2 C temperature increase and having a linear (or slightly concave) shape. We show that the heterogeneity of the agents, technological progress and the damage function may lead to lower GDP growth rates and greater temperature-related damage than what is forecast by models with solely homogeneous (representative) agents

Reliance, An Early Grain Sorghum

Reliance, a new grain sorghum for South Dakota, stands longer after a killing frost and has a wider range in planting time than Norghum. It is also larger seeded and has a sturdier stalk. About 3,000 pounds of Reliance seed was released by the South Dakota Experiment Station to the County Crop Improvement Associations in the spring of 1953. Tests conducted at several locations on widely different soil types and under varying climatic conditions show Reliance is well adapted to the sorghum growing areas of the state

Systematic attribution of observed Southern Hemisphere circulation trends to external forcing and internal variability

A critical question in the global warming debate concerns the causes of the observed trends of the Southern Hemisphere (SH) atmospheric circulation over recent decades. Secular trends have been identified in the frequency of occurrence of circulation regimes, namely the positive phase of the Southern Annular Mode (SAM) and the hemispheric wave-3 pattern which is associated with blocking. Previous studies into the causes of these secular trends have either been purely model based, have not included observational forcing data or have mixed external forcing with indices of internal climate variability impeding a systematic and unbiased attribution of the causes of the secular trends. Most model studies also focused mainly on the austral summer season. However, the changes to the storm tracks have occurred in all seasons and particularly in the austral winter and early spring when midlatitude blocking is most active and stratospheric ozone should not play a role. Here we systematically attribute the secular trends over the recent decades using a non-stationary clustering method applied to both reanalysis and observational forcing data from all seasons. While most previous studies emphasized the importance of stratospheric ozone depletion in causing austral summer SH circulation trends, we show observational evidence that anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations have been the major driver of these secular trends in the SAM and blocking when all seasons are considered. Our results suggest that the recovery of the ozone hole might delay the signal of global warming less strongly than previously thought and that effects from all seasons are likely crucial in understanding the causes of the secular trends

Progress Report of Research in Crops and Soils

The Experiment Station Agronomy Farm, located one mile east of Brookings, is representative of a large area of land in eastern South Dakota. It consists of 160 acres, of which about 130 acres are now laid out in various soil and crop experiments. The soil, commonly called loam and classified as Barnes Loam, is in a good state of fertility. Results of the experiments on this farm will indicate closely what may be expected from similar soil management, cropping systems and crop varieties on the same type of soil and under comparable climatic conditions. Numerous experiments are now in progress on this farm. The information given in this circular represents a progress report on only those experiments for which results can now be evaluated. Further results will be published at intervals as the experiments progress

Research in Crops and Soils: A Progress Report

The Experiment Station Agronomy Farm, located 1 mile east of Brookings, is representative of a large area of land in eastern South Dakota. It consists of 160 acres, 150 of which are laid out in various soil and crop experiments. The soil, commonly called loam and classified as Barnes Loam, is in a good state of fertility. Results of the experiments on this farm will indicate what may be expected from similar soil management, cropping systems, and crop varieties on the same type of soil and under comparable climatic conditions. Numerous experiments are in progress on this farm. The information in this circular is a progress report on those experiments for which results can now be evaluated. Further results will be published at intervals as the experiments progress