2026 WA GIS Conference: Full Schedule

11:00am PDT

Estimating the Climate Resiliency of WA Dairy Farms

Thursday May 21, 2026 11:00am - 12:00pm PDT

According to climate models, northwest Washington will experience progressively wetter winters in the coming decades. Dairy farms collect and store manure in large ponds for later use as fertilizer, and the volume of those ponds is greatly influenced by precipitation. Do these ponds have the capacity to hold additional winter rainfall? Or will dairies need to adapt to prevent overflow events?

WSDA’s Nutrient Management Technical Services team has come up with winter storage preparedness estimates for over 30 dairies in Whatcom and Snohomish counties. This presentation will walk through the steps involved in completing this project, from collecting data to generating reports to sharing results with dairy farmers. Additionally, it will cover how Python was utilized to perform complex calculations and how reports were designed using HTML and CSS.

Speakers

Michael Lowry

GIS Analyst, Washington State Department of Agriculture

Michael Lowry is the GIS Analyst for WSDA’s Nutrient Management Technical Services, a program that works with dairy farmers to protect water quality. He has worked on a wide variety of projects that aim to provide the NMTS team with tools and data to get more done in less time... Read More →

Thursday May 21, 2026 11:00am - 12:00pm PDT
409

Environment, Climate

2026 WA GIS Conference

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2026 WA GIS Conference

11:00am PDT

Michael Lowry

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