Using seasonal climate scenarios in the ForageAhead annual forage production model for early drought impact assessment

High interannual variability of forage production in semi-arid grasslands leads to uncertainties when livestock producers make decisions such as buying additional feed, relocating animals, or using flexible stocking. Within-season predictions of annual forage production (i.e., yearly production) can provide specific boundaries for producers to make these decisions with more information and possibly with higher confidence. We use a recently developed forage production model, ForageAhead, that uses environmental and seasonal climate variables to estimate the annual forage production approximated by remotely sensed vegetation data. The model uses observed seasonal climate data from winter and spring as an input together with summer climate [...]