Crop4Sight recently announced the release of its easy to use potato irrigation-scheduling tool. The new tool uses a state-of-the-art potato specific water balance model. The tool delivers convenient irrigation schedules whenever a grower requires them. If the weather or irrigation equipment availability changes, an updated schedule can be produced at the click of a button for each crop.
Using tailored soil type, variety information and the farm irrigation capabilities, Crop4Sight creates crop specific irrigation schedules, for the week ahead. It lets the grower choose whether they want to irrigate for scab control, yield or set their own soil moisture deficit (SMD), and the tool uses all of this, and more, to calculate water balance, creating a schedule bespoke to your priorities.
Hourly meteorological data for including evapo-transpiration (ET), wind speed, relative humidity and rainfall are automatically pulled in for each crop. The tool even calculates the rainfall to keep water balance more accurate if there hasn’t been time to read the rain gauge at the field.
“The module is integrated with Crop4Sight’s crop monitoring and yield forecasting tools and uses the same in-season data making it work harder for you,” says Dr. Robert Allen, responsible for the technical strategy and product delivery at Crop4Sight. ”Using this data the scheduled irrigation accounts for crop growth stage, soil moisture and environmental conditions. This allows growers to efficiently manage soil moisture so that crop yield is not restricted, while at the same time scheduling so that water is not lost to drainage and wasted.
