Shefayim, Israel, 14th– 24th May 2017 The Israel Meteorological Service has provided training at a post-graduate level since 1967.  Several thousands of participants from all over the world, mainly from developing countries, have taken advantage of lessons learnt to study the application of meteorology to various aspects of economic activity. Since Israel was successful with developing agric...

A Climate Change Adaptation Plan for the Agriculture and Forest Sector is being developed by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM). A public consultation process is ongoing and DAFM are inviting written submissions. [Update: submission deadline has now passed]. Submissions received will help to inform the completion of this sectoral plan in the coming months. For further ...

Each year, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine advises farmers of the predicted risk of disease caused by liver fluke (Fasciola hepatica) infection in livestock based on advice received from the Liver Fluke Advisory Group. Source: DAFM - Press Release, November 2016 The Disease Forecast "The risk of disease due to liver fluke infection is high for most parts of the country ...

By Jim Collins (UCD) - In the realms of Irish science, the names of Tom Keane and AGMET are inextricably entwined.  In the 1970s, Tom who saw a need to link like-minded individuals, then loosely associated to the discipline of agrometeorology.  He arranged with the Met Éireann Director to call a meeting of invited individuals to its Glasnevin HQ, on Feb 29 1984. AGMET was born there and then and T...

‘Soils wetter than normal nearly everywhere’ Met Éireann operates a Soil Moisture Deficit (SMD) model based on the research by Schulte at al.† This model accounts for three different drainage regimes, approximating different soil types in Ireland. These are: well drained, where the soil never saturates; moderately drained, where the soil may saturate on wet days and poorly drained, where the soi...

Can We Still Use 'Irish Rules' To Forecast Potato Late Blight Epidemics In Ireland? Potato late blight is one of most devastating crop diseases and the most important disease of potatoes and tomatoes globally. It was one of initiators of the Irish Famine and investigations into the cause of the potato crop failure during these years have led to the scientific discipline known today as plant patho...

Grazed grass is a cheap source of feed for Irish farm animals, and therefore to maximise profits it is important to have efficient use of grass on farms. A predictive grass growth model would help farmers with their grassland management. However to date, weather forecasts have not been included in Irish grass growth models; only retrospective observations have been used as weather inputs. In this...

Since 1985 the AGMET group have been publishing, reports, books and conference proceedings. When any new agrometeorological research project kicks off, one of the first things that is typically done is to review how the current systems were developed, i.e. what has been done in the past. It is for this reason that it is believed that these old AGMET publications are still of value. To addres...

Workshop - Agrometeorologists for farmers in hotter, drier, wetter future This workshop will be held in Ljubljana, Slovenia 9-10 November 2016. The workshop is organized by Slovenian Environment Agency, Meteorological Office through the budget of the Tromp foundation and is primarily addressed to agrometeorologists of Central and Southern European countries, where agrometeorology bears a sig...

"Using a surface energy balance approach to characterise agro-environmental zones in Ireland in support of on-farm decision making" Background "Farming, particularly pastoral farming, involves the management of biological processes within a specific ecological and weather environment to generate income which in turn is also a function of the costs of inputs used on farm and prices for the output...