Climate Outlook Predicts Cool Temperatures Will Linger into Spring

Feb 25, 2019

The unusually cold temperatures that have held their grip over South Dakota are expected to continue into March, according to the latest climate outlook released February 21, 2019.

“Following an exceptional cold snap in January, temperatures throughout the state have remained 8 to 20 degrees below average, setting several single day records, with some areas of the state on track to rank February 2019 the coldest on record,” said Laura Edwards, SDSU Extension State Climatologist.

Edwards said the cold climate pattern is likely to continue into early or mid-March at least.

“This pattern tilts the odds towards colder than average temperatures overall for the month ahead,” Edwards said, pointing to the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Climate Prediction Center’s outlook for March 2019.

Source:sdstate.edu

Video: Seeing the Whole Season: How Continuous Crop Modeling Is Changing Breeding

Plant breeding has long been shaped by snapshots. A walk through a plot. A single set of notes. A yield check at the end of the season. But crops do not grow in moments. They change every day.

In this conversation, Gary Nijak of AerialPLOT explains how continuous crop modeling is changing the way breeders see, measure, and select plants by capturing growth, stress, and recovery across the entire season, not just at isolated points in time.

Nijak breaks down why point-in-time observations can miss critical performance signals, how repeated, season-long data collection removes the human bottleneck in breeding, and what becomes possible when every plot is treated as a living data set. He also explores how continuous modeling allows breeding programs to move beyond vague descriptors and toward measurable, repeatable insights that connect directly to on-farm outcomes.

This conversation explores:

• What continuous crop modeling is and how it works

• Why traditional field observations fall short over a full growing season

• How scale and repeated measurement change breeding decisions

• What “digital twins” of plots mean for selection and performance

• Why data, not hardware, is driving the next shift in breeding innovation As data-driven breeding moves from research into real-world programs, this discussion offers a clear look at how seeing the whole season is reshaping value for breeders, seed companies, and farmers, and why this may be only the beginning.