USDA’s 2012 Agricultural Outlook Forum, Feb. 23-24, will present 25 breakout sessions, including three sessions focused on U.S. agriculture and the weather.  In the session Innovations to Minimize Crop Loss in a Changing Climate, Oregon State University will demonstrate their PRISM Spatial Climate Knowledge System which accounts for spatial variations in climate.  Speakers will be Christopher Daly, Director of the PRISM Climate Group and David Hannaway, Professor, Department of Crop and Soil Science, Oregon State University.  Rick Mueller, Head of the Spatial Analysis Research Section for USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service, will also present a new analysis tool called Cropscape.

In the session Climate Change and U.S. Agriculture: Risks, Opportunities & Adaptation speakers will include David Gustafson, Water Quality & Ag Sustainability Lead, Monsanto Company; Karen Garrett, Professor, Department of Plant Pathology, Kansas State University; Elizabeth Marshall, Economist, Economic Research Service, USDA; and Jerry Hatfield, Laboratory Director and Supervisory Plant Physiologist, The National Laboratory for Agriculture and the Environment, Agricultural Research Service, USDA.

A session on U.S. Weather Outlook & Drought Mitigation will include the outlook for U.S. spring and summer weather addressed by Brad Rippey, Meteorologist, World Agricultural Outlook Board, USDA; the outlook for Northern Hemisphere weather addressed by Eric Luebehusen, Meteorologist, World Agricultural Outlook Board, USDA.  Drought mitigation strategies will be addressed by Michael J. Hayes, Director, National Drought Mitigation Center.

To learn more and register for the Forum, please go to: http://www.usda.gov/oce/forum/