The FAR Weather Platform has recently been upgraded with three new tools to help New Zealand arable farmers decide on the best times to irrigate, plant crops, and more.
The spring additions, named the Soil Temperature Tool, Evapotranspiration Tool and Stem Rust Tool, were added by HortPlus in early October and can be viewed on the platform under the Pest & Disease and Weather & Irrigation dropdown menus.
HortPlus director Mike Barley said the tools would add to growers’ toolkits as New Zealand closes in on summer and the El Niño weather system begins to take effect.
Soil Temperature Tool
This tool provides local soil temperature information to help growers make more informed decisions around when to plant crops, expected nutrient uptake and disease susceptibility.
The data presented within the tool comes from soil temperature readings taken by HortPlus’ nationwide network of weather stations, many of which include ground sensors that send data back to the Weather & Disease Portal every hour.
Growers can view soil temperature data from their nearest weather station by selecting it from a dropdown list.
“This new tool was developed following feedback from users that soil temperature data wasn’t as user friendly as it could be. We’re pleased to have been able to quickly respond and make this information available via an easy-to-use dashboard,” Barley said.
Evapotranspiration Tool
This resource helps growers and farmers track the impacts of transpiration on their crops and evaporation and rainfall on their land to help with decisions around when to irrigate.
It takes account of factors including rainfall, wind, humidity, temperature, sunlight and the type of crop being grown. By modelling evapotranspiration with data from weather stations across New Zealand, the tool can generate localised historic and forecast evapotranspiration information to provide insights for growers.
“This is a great education resource but it will also be useful for those who are working out in the field, whether they are an orchardist trying to work out the transpiration rate for their fruit trees or a farmer making decisions on when to irrigate their pasture,” Barley said.
Stem Rust Tool
This resource makes it easy for growers to view graphs displaying the current stem rust risk level in their area, based on the time of year and data from their nearest weather station.
The model is adapted from the Stem Rust Risk Model originally created by AgResearch scientist Nicholas Davies. It has been integrated into the Foundation for Arable Research Weather & Disease Portal to give growers an indication of spore germination risk leading to stem rust infection in cereal crops.
“The team has been working hard to make this available in spring, as we approach the highest risk period for stem rust in New Zealand,” Barley said.
The FAR Weather & Disease Portal is an online resource available to all arable growers on the foundation’s website at far.metwatch.nz. The new model can be found within the portal under the Pest and Disease menu, enabling growers to view graphs showing current
All three new tools were developed with the support of advisory panels featuring growers and leading New Zealand researchers from organisations including FAR, Plant & Food Research, NIWA, and LandWise.