Farmers and Technology, they do go hand in hand
Farmers aren't always looked at as the ones with the newest ipad or the coolest tablet. You generally won't see farmers bragging about how they reached a new high score on their trendy cell phone game. Farmers aren't usually the ones you think of to have the newest technology. But farmers and technology do go hand in hand. Some may think that farmers aren't always up on the newest gadgets or tech trends, but now a days they have to be. Farmers are turning to technology to help them be more sustainable and efficient in their usages.
Farmers all around are turning to web based software to help them understand their farms needs more. Some farmers are using drones to get a more real time picture of their fields. The birds eye view a drone can capture will outline how the soil types vary across a field. Farmers use this to help with better utilization of nutrients and fertilizers in trouble areas of their fields. Drone are helpful to see what isn't visible to us as we walk through a field.
On our farm we use probes to help us see beneath the soil. We have probes at three different levels through the root zone measuring moisture intake. Probes help us to know at what levels our roots are thirsty and at what levels they are saturated. The probe readings are registered to a data box in our field and taken via cell service to our account at the web based program. We are able to access these readings online or better yet, through an app on our phone.
Water data box in our field
Colored flags mark the different root zone meters
When a reading comes to our phone it looks like this graph. The red line is the deepest, green in the immediate and blue is shallow areas of the root zone being measured. When water runs through the root zones at the various levels, the lines fall. As we irrigate, the moisture levels rise as the pressure to remove water goes down. When the lines are at the top of the graph the roots are using the most effort to take in water, and as they fall the water becomes more readily available to that root zone. You can see as we irrigate (the purple box) how the water moves from zone to zone. When the line is in the aqua rectangle it is the optimal moisture content levels, the roots are neither thirsty or saturated. This occurs just after irrigation is complete. You can see when the blue line is saturated, the green and red and beginning to work less for their water. As the red moves in the blue rectangle zone, all levels are receiving water most efficiently.
We use this system to help us know when to turn on and off our irrigation systems. We are able to accurately know how much water is being used by each root zone. When our roots are working efficiently, then our trees are producing a crop at the most efficient rate. If our trees were stressed, they would be either working over time to get enough water.
We have all had to learn how to be the most efficient and effective with our resources, especially during drought times. As water becomes more and more scarce and farmers are looking for ways to best manage what they have, this tool is just another asset to add to our belt.
Until Next Time,
Almond Girl