Benefit To Soybean Farmers
The primary activity of this planning grant was to assess how well farmers were aware of the various weather monitoring networks, the information those networks provided, how much farmers were using that information, and what sort of decision support tools or data they believed would help them increase their planning and production success. Many of the producers in attendance admitted to using personal weather stations or weather monitoring equipment “on site” but were unaware of the limitations and risks of that equipment (e.g., need for regular maintenance and calibrations, variables that were there not getting measured, possible error with those sensors). Many also seemed unaware of the various networks and websites with free data that was available as well as citizen science monitoring programs (e.g., CoCoRaHS) that they could be participating in to help contribute to data collection. When it came to identifying where there are decisions support tool gaps based on weather monitoring information, it was clear that it was nearly impossible to identify a list of what they didn’t know they don’t know. For example, they may have heard of the term “inversion”, but were not sure what it was, why it was important to monitoring for its existence and strength, and what variables were involved. The ultimate benefit of this project was the realization that farmers understand the weather is a driving factor to the success of their farming, but more data, resources, and training need to be provided so they know the caveats of certain sources of information, know how to use free online tools to make better decisions, and know how information about variables beyond just temperature and precipitation can give them an advantage throughout the calendar year.