Indiana CCA Conference 2018 Presentation
 

Presentations

T11

Crop Management
Tue, Dec 18, 2018
11:00am to 11:50am

T4

Crop Management
Tue, Dec 18, 2018
4:00pm to 4:50pm

Weather Risk in Production Agriculture

US production agriculture has sustained a 6-year stretch of favorable weather that has led to high yields and large production. However, volatile weather is a constant source of risk during our growing season and this talk will focus understanding and forecasting impactful weather for farming operations. We will briefly review the 2018 US growing season before turning our attention to the progress of the 2018-19 growing season in South America. We will then discuss Spring 2018 weather and talk about long term trends in US weather that are impacting US agriculture. Come prepared to learn about the best weather resources and how to use weather information to improve efficiency and understand weather-driven market fluctuations.

Speaker

Eric Snodgrass

Science Fellow and Principal Atmospheric Scientist
Nutrien Ag Solutions
Biography

Eric Snodgrass is a Sr. Science Fellow and Principal Atmospheric Scientist for Nutrien Ag Solutions, where he develops predictive, analytical software solutions to manage weather risk for global production agriculture. He provides frequent weather updates that focus on how high-impact weather events influence global agriculture productivity. His current research uses machine learning to better understand field-level weather impacts on yields in the US and to increase confidence in long-range weather prediction. He presents his research as a featured speaker at over 120 conferences annually where he provides logistical guidance and solutions to weather sensitive financial institutions, farmers, commodity traders, and other stakeholders. Snodgrass is a co-founder of Global Weather and Climate Logistic, LLC and Agrible, Inc which were both acquired by Nutrien Ag Solutions in 2018.

Before transitioning to Nutrien Ag Solutions, Eric was the Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 2006-2019. Each year, he guided over 1800 students through the wild side of weather in ATMS 120: Severe and Hazardous Weather. He taught advanced courses on General Physical Meteorology, Meteorological Instrumentation, while routinely guest lectured for multiple disciplines across campus including the College of Law and the College of Agricultural and Consumer Economics. He also supervised dozens Capstone Research projects that focused on the economic impacts through applied meteorology and seasonal prediction. Snodgrass also taught advanced courses for the Environmental Sustainability Program on Renewable and Alternative Energy . He advised all undergraduate majors and minors in atmospheric science (~100 students) and supervised graduate teaching assistants and master’s students. He won many prestigious teaching awards at the University of Illinois including College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Teaching Excellence award, the Campus Teaching Excellence Award and the Campus Teaching Excellent Award in Online and Distance Education. His online version of ATMS 120 was awarded the 2012 "Best Online Course" from the University Professional Continuing Education Association (a national organization). Eric currently serves as the chair of the Alumni Council for the Department of Atmospheric Science’s at the University of Illinois.