The Midwestern Regional Climate Center (MRCC) has launched the Ag Climate dashboard, a centralized hub for climate and agricultural data for producers, advisors and researchers.
The dashboard provides historic and current weather data, Climate Prediction Center outlooks, tools for monitoring crop growth, pest threats and more.
Austin Pearson, a climatologist at MRCC and the Indiana State Climate Office, said the goals is to make a one stop shop for publicly available data.
“We're taking all these publicly funded tools across the web and trying to put them in one place,” he said. “And so that'll eliminate farmers from having to have 12 different products that are saved in their favorites.”
The dashboard uses tools developed by Purdue University as well as “trusted external sources.” he said.
Pearson said now that the dashboard is live, the center is looking for feedback on what features users want most.
“The dashboard itself is a work in progress, so it'll never be static,” he said. “We'll constantly be providing updates, (and) linking to new tools and resources as they come online.”
The idea for the dashboard stemmed directly from farmers.
“In 2023, we hosted workshops with farmers and one of the biggest takeaways was that while many ag climate tools exist, they aren’t found in one location,” Pearson said.
