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Featured Resources FeaturedResources

Farmer Perspectives on Agriculture and Climate in the Corn Belt, 2-Volume Atlas
Social scientists from the U2U and SustainableCorn.org  projects have published a two part statistical atlas featuring watershed-level results from their unprecedented 2012 survey of Midwestern farmers. These comprehensive resources provide a detailed look at corn farmers' perspectives and beliefs on a range of climate and agricultural issues.


Farmer Perspectives on Agriculture and Weather Variability in the Corn Belt: A Statistical Atlas, Volume 1 focuses on farmer attitudes toward adaptive and mitigative actions, beliefs about climate change, perceptions of risks and experienced hazards, influences of agricultural actors, and the general characteristics of the farms surveyed.
 
Farmer Perspectives on Agricultural Practices, Information, and Weather Variability in the Corn Belt: A Statistical Atlas, Volume 2 is focused on farmers' specific behaviors, beliefs about climate and weather, and the tools they utilize to make decisions.

 Have you highlighted the U2U decision support tools in your Extension programming, used them in the classroom , or recommended them to a client? If so, we'd like to hear from you! Tell us about your success story today.
Tool Tips and Updates tool

New Training Materials Available for Irrigation InvestmentDST

The U2U team recently launched their fifth and final decision tool, Irrigation Investment DST.  This FREE tool helps users explore the profitability of installing irrigation equipment on their  farm. Check out these new training resources to help get the most out  of this powerful tool!

Upcoming Events Events

U2U Featured at Upcoming Conferences and Meetings
With the end of the U2U project approaching we have many results and experiences we want to share. Therefore, in the coming months with will have numerous U2U faculty, staff, and graduate students presenting their research and other project-related outcomes at scientific conferences and meetings. Look for us at the following events:


Reaching Out reaching

Webinar
Did you miss our free 30-minute training webinar featuring the newest U2U to ol, Irrigation Investment DST ? Not to worry, we recorded it for you! During this webinar you will  learn about tool features and functions, interpreting results, and data inputs and sensitivities.


 
Farmer and Advisor Surveys
The U2U team has been surveying Corn Belt farmers and agricultural advisors  about their  awareness of and interactions with the U2U project, their use o f climate-based tools in decision making, and other beliefs and perceptions about climate and agriculture. This effort is one of several end-of-project  evaluation activities underway.
 
We want to say THANK YOU to the 2,500 farmers who have already responded to our survey. Starting this week, thousands of agricultural advisors will be receiving our survey too. Thank you in advance to everyone who will be participating. We look forward to sharing our results starting in early 2017.


Publications Publications

Forthcoming Special Issue in Climate Risk Management

Over the last year the U2U team has been working together to publish  a special  is s ue in the journal  Climate Risk Management. 
With a total of 10 articles, this U2U-focused issue will include new social science analysis on farmers' and advisors' perceptions of climate risks, detailed information on our decision tools, our project evaluation methods, and more.
 
This special issue will be released in early 2017 and it will be featured in our next U2U newsletter.



Researcher Spotlight research

  Dr. Benjamin Gramig is an Associate Professor in the  Department of Agricultural Economics at Purdue  University. He works on a variety of research,  teaching,  and extension activities focused on  environmental and  natural resource economics.  Prior to joining the Purdue  faculty, Ben received his  doctorate from Michigan State  University. He  previously worked as an agricultural risk  management consultant and in the Kentucky  Governor's Office of Agricultural Policy. 

 As a co-investigator on the U2U project, Ben was  part  of the team that developed and refined the Split  N DST and he led the development of the new Irrigation Investment DST. Ben is working with graduate students, Paul Preckel at Purdue, and Gopal Alargarswamy and Jeff Andresen at Michigan State to construct case studies that investigate economically feasible adaptation options under changing climate scenarios. He also advised several successful U2U graduate students whose research addressed climate, agriculture, and farm-level economic issues. 

Ben enjoys the outdoors, music and spending time with his family. A native of Louisville, Kentucky, Ben was drawn from the city to agriculture out of youthful curiosity and the link between agriculture, natural resources and environmental quality. 

You can stay connected with Ben by following him on Twitter ( @bgramig) or visit his website.


 

U2U Team 2015


 

About Us: 

Useful to Usable (U2U) is a multi-institution research and extension project focused on improving the resilience and profitability of farms in the North Central U.S. amid a more variable and changing climate. Through the development and dissemination of decision support tools, resource materials and training, we strive to transform existing climate information into actionable knowledge for more effective decision making. 

LEARN MORE ABOUT U2U
CONTACT US:   
Melissa Widhalm, Project Manager

Click here to join our mailing list.

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This project is supported by Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Competitive Grant no. 2011-68002-30220 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.