[GOPJ]

I live in Kansas and the last two weeks of July and first two weeks of August is the hottest month of the summer, usually hot and muggy. This year lots of rain cool nights mid 80’s...

Any crop failures reported yet?

[guitarplayer1953]

Nope the first round of wheat crops were above average and the second round is looking good.

[patriciaruth]

During the Little Ice Age (from 1315 to 1750), growers were very slow to adjust their crops to the new norms in Europe and England of wetter and cooler summers.

The spring fields were too muddy to plant so planting was delayed, the low lying clouds blocked solar energy and decreased the amount of protein that was stored in the cereal heads, and the unusual late summer rains beat down the heavy heads of the grain into the wet ground where they rotted.

After a fair amount of famine they learned to plant oats rather than wheat in some places, to plant more potatoes, and to plant a late crop of turnips to use for winter fodder for their animals.

They learned to drain fields and turn it into pasture.

They also learned to shift to more animal food, enclosing land for larger pastures for animals to graze.

If this solar minimum is prolonged into several decades, then the sooner some farmers shift their crops, the better.

One scientist said that the best measure of the weather over the last millenium was the price of wheat.