In the summer of 2006, Growth Stage Consulting, Agri-Trend Agrology, Weather Innovations Inc. (WIN) and Hudye Soil Services partnered to bring in-field environment monitoring to the Field of Dreams in Norquay Saskatchewan. The four companies were successful at demonstrating how weather station technology, once thought impractical for individual producers, will soon be as common on Canadian farms as GPS and guidance systems.
The Field of Dreams is an agronomic showcase where numerous agriculture products and practices are tested in performance trials. Canola and wheat varieties were grown in side-by-side plots to give producers a look at the promising new technology that they will have access to in the future. Through an existing relationship with Agri-Trend, Growth Stage was invited to participate with other sponsors such as; Bayer CropScience, Monsanto Canada and Canterra Seeds.
WIN provided and maintained a fully calibrated weather station that was erected in one of the Canola trial fields. The station recorded important, site specific information to base key management decisions upon. This data included the following weather elements:
- Maximum and minimum temperature
- Wind speed and direction
- Precipitation
- Leaf wetness
|
The objective of placing the weather station in the field trials was to demonstrate to growers the benefits of monitoring environmental conditions on field scale resolution. The demonstrated benefits include:
-
Understanding the variation of conditions throughout local areas
-
Creating visibility to actionable weather conditions
-
Farm scale logistic management to reduce costs
The pace of change on the farm has been great in the past decade. Growers have access to the highest quality and latest advancements in seed and equipment technology. Unfortunately the access to high quality local observed weather data has stagnated or diminished. The prairies are too vast for any public institution to adequately equip with remote weather stations. As a result growers are forced to rely on weather data that is irrelevant to their operation because it was collected too far away and in a completely different micro climate. Or they have no data available to assist in management decisions because the official station is down or not reporting for a period of time.
Although government and other institutions provide weather data free of charge, the quality and consistency is less than desirable or practical for growers. The example shown, details this lack of practicality in using free weather data versus weather data collected in the field of interest. In this example the closest Environment Canada station to the Field of Dreams is in Pelly, Sk. This location is 12.3 km from the Field of Dreams site. This example shows a number of instances where in field conditions were significantly different than conditions recorded and reported by Environment Canada. As well, please note the large holes in the Environment Canada reported weather data. There are a number of weeks where the station at Pelly was not reporting. The inherent irrelevance of weather data collected a significant distance from a field and gaps in that data set render it highly impractical and unreliable for growers to base key management and operational decisions upon. Conversely, an in-field station resolves both of these deficiencies.
|
Through wireless communication the data collected in the field was recorded by Growth Stage and displayed through a proprietary web application - WeatherX. Participants in the Field of Dreams had 24/7 access to WeatherX to view the weather data as required for their specific needs. Growth Stage’s WeatherX software allows users to query the database of weather data, selecting the weather elements and the specific time periods of particular interest.
To further demonstrate the capabilities of weather stations and how the information they collect can impact operational decisions at a grower level, Growth Stage created and sent weather alerts (via email) to select participants. These alerts warned individuals of weather events which had occurred in the field that could be detrimental to the crops health or could require immediate action. The example shown to the left, warned participants that the maximum air temperature in the field had reached 28° C in the past 24 hours. The Alert contained a chart which clearly detailed the time of day that the high temperature occurred.
Real-time, relevant weather data makes the ownership of a weather station a practical venture. The station gives growers the ability to know what is going on in fields some distance away from home base. Stations become particularly attractive when a grower is covering many acres spread across a great distance. Tremendous savings can be realized by not sending workers and equipment to far flung fields because you know that conditions in the field are not conducive to that agronomic operation.
For example; imagine a grower who loads up a sprayer and hired hand, sends them 40 km away to spray, only to discover upon arriving at the field that a rain shower the previous night will prevent them from spraying. That equipment and personnel now must turn around and come back home and find another field to spray. Imagine the cost in time and fuel wasted because of a lack of knowledge of a local rain shower. One situation like this and the weather station will be paid for.
Growth Stage looks forward to the opportunity to continue to support the Field of Dreams and to work closely with Agri-Trend, WIN and Hudye Soil Services in 2007.
|