If farmers “believe” long-range weather reports, they might be willing to pay. Recent analysis suggests 47% of Ohio farmers would use weather forecasts they could be confident of for decision-making. Results suggest that farmers would gain from the improved forecasts, potentially by being better equipped to use existing risk reducing technology like crop insurance or genetically altered seeds. A report by Brent Sohngen, Mark Tucker and Ted Napier at Ohio State indicates that higher confidence in long-term forecasts of temperature and precipitation would mean wide-spread adoption for farm production decisions, but not be as wide-spread as the current use of short-term forecasts. The researchers’ models found farmers’ willingness to pay for improved weather information works out to a value of about 15-cents per acre of cropland in Ohio . Link to the research report at http://aede.osu.edu/resources/docs/pdf/45D8ECD1-60F8-48E1-B5D8C49E0AA8FA46.pdf .