Grass Cast

Several organizations including a team from Colorado have collaborated on a new forecast model to help livestock producers in the Northern Plains.

The idea is help livestock producers better predict and manage grassland forage levels .

Dannele Peck of the Agricultural Research Service explains how the new Grass Cast was created.

"The original idea for Grass Cast came from a partnership between Colorado State University and USDA Ag Research Service. But then it grew and who else came into the picture included a researcher at Arizona State University who is an expert at remotely sent satellite data. But then we needed to pair that rangeland data with what was happening with the weather. So our friends at the University of Nebraska Lincoln the National Drought Mitigation Center had the access and the understanding of that weather and climate data."

Most of the funding for Grass Cast has come from the USDA. The Grass Cast is updated every 2 weeks.