Our new irrigation management program is called “Core”. The reason we named it Core is because every product CropMetrics/CropX sells has the Core model running on it. When you order a probe solution for water management ($1400) we use the Core model to project the water needs for the next seven days. The model looks at the current soil moisture based on what the probe is showing, then uses hyper spatial weather data forecasts coupled with local weather station data to determine how much water the field will be using based on wind speed, cloud cover, temperature, humidity, rain fall possibilities and amounts, and of course Evapotranspiration from the crop. We know that Evapotranspiration (ET) varies depending on the crop and maturity of the crop you planted, as well as when you planted it. That is why it is so important to make sure we have all that data in the model.

The way a field of just Core differs from a probe solution is there is no actual measurement of the water content. We populate the model using texture and topography dynamics along with our past hyper spatial weather data to estimate the volumetric soil water content. We have found having run many tests that the model (if adjusted correctly) is pretty accurate. It will never be as good a solution as actually measuring water content, but for $600 it is a way for growers to experience precision water management on a trail basis and on fields where the economics might not justify the $1400 expense. A good example would be a small 40 acre field.

Our team at Precision Agronomy Solutions will constantly be monitoring and measuring the results of the model vs probes in the area. But by doing that we are insuring our model is reflecting similar conditions to what the probes are showing. (This is why we require some probe data close to every Core field) We then look at the data each week to give you a recommendation on what we think would be the best irrigation strategy for the next 7 days.

We think that Core is a great way to get started in precision irrigation management. All we need you to do is provide us with the name and the legals of the field so we can create it in our data base. Then give us your planting and hybrid information. If you have an AgSense telemetry on your pivot, we can bring that irrigation data in automatically. But, if not you will need to either update your app (we will send you a link to down load the app that you can use to monitor Core) or let us know so we can adjust it. If we don’t keep the irrigation records up to date the model will become out of sync very quickly, so it’s important to make sure we do that.