Purple flowers that look like they could be a cover crop in many fields in Kentucky and Indiana are more than flowering weeds. An agriculture extension agent says those purple blooms are a sign of climate change the increasingly unpredictable weather that farmers have to deal with.
Jon Neufelder is an educator with the Purdue University Extension Office in Posey County, Indiana. He says the flowers are purple deadnettle and henbit and they’re a sign of a warm winter and an early spring.
“We have them every year, but this year because of the warm February, they started flowering a lot earlier. So we’re seeing them a lot earlier. Usually we don’t see them around April and by then the farmers have pretty well killed them off because they’re started spraying for production.”
Neufelder says the warm winter has caused overall growth to be about two weeks ahead of schedule.
That could affect the wheat crop because it can come out of the dormant stage early and then become susceptible to a freeze.
Neufelder says the warm winter and early blooms show that climate change is already having an impact on farming in the region.
"I think the research and the science is real, that there is climate change and we’re experiencing it with these extremes in weather. I thinks these facts of we’re getting earlier and earlier in our planting season. Our growing season is expanding.”
Neufelder says the extremes in recent years, like early season tornadoes, heavy rains during planting or growing season, and summer droughts are additional challenges for agriculture.
