Do you know how much rain has fallen on your farm? Or on your block of land down the road? Do you sometimes forget to tip out the rain
gauge? Accurate rainfall figures for
farm records are becoming more and more important in this age of transparency. Knowing how much rain fell on any given day on
your own farm or on a particular crop will give you the ability to make more
accurate decisions. Telemetered rain
gauges save you the hassle of manually reading the rain gauge and provide up to
date data straight to your phone or computer.
Rain gauges can be installed along with your soil moisture
probe and positioned under the irrigator or installed in a dryland area. Positioning the rain gauge under the
irrigator enables you to monitor exactly what application depth the irrigator
is applying. Application depths can
change as a result of adding extra irrigators to the system, blocked or broken
nozzles and changes to system pressures to name a few. Excessive application depths are expected to
account for on average 10% of water losses on an average irrigation system,
that’s wasted power, water and most importantly money. Not applying enough water may result in yield
losses and shallow rooted plants.
A telemetered rain gauge installed under the irrigator will
also enable you to see the application rate applied. If it is above the rates described for your
situation in the table below you may be wasting water.
Agri Optics can add a rain gauge to your soil moisture
system to help your decision making.
Ring us today to talk about the options for your farm.
Agri Optics office: (03) 302 9227
Cindy Lowe 021 796 834 or cindy@agrioptics.co.nz
Email: info@agrioptics.co.nz
