Birkel speaks to News Center Maine about the impact of climate change on dairy farms
Sean Birkel, state climatologist and assistant professor at the Climate Change Institute and Cooperative Extension at the University of Maine, spoke to News Center Maine for an article about the impact of climate change on Maine dairy farmers. Birkel said that while more arid regions of the country will get drier with the increasing temperatures, the northeast will actually get wetter and hotter. The heavier rains combined with increased temperatures could bring intense weather on both ends of the spectrum, and dairy farmers will have to learn how to adapt to extreme conditions. “The climate of the northeast region will get wetter, because of a tendency to more extremes, there is research showing in this warmer climate there may be an increased likelihood of drought or heavy rain. As temperatures rise in an increasingly warm season. … there’s enhanced evaporations so any drought that does happen, the impacts can be intensified,” Birkel said.