Understanding Evapotranspiration and Growing Degree Days for Farming

August 12, 2022 Monica Devlin Comments

The KestrelMet 6000 AG Weather Station has been updated to provide growers with field-specific data related to evapotranspiration and growing degree days — key factors in managing for enhanced crop performance and more efficient irrigation.

What is Evapotranspiration?

Evapotranspiration (ET) data provides an accurate calculation of the amount of water needed for specific weather and crops. The sum of evaporation and transpiration, ET quantifies the amount of water lost from the soil and plants themselves owing to weather conditions.

Why Growing Degree Days?

Growing degree days (GDD), or heat units, help growers track the development of plants and target the optimal times to mitigate pest damage. GDD also allows growers to plan ahead for flowering and harvest.

What This Means for Growers

Now growers can leverage the KestrelMet platform to calculate daily ET and track GDD based on the actual conditions in their fields. On-site measurements enable far more accurate information, as critical parameters like rainfall and temperature can vary dramatically over distances as short as 1 mile. KestrelMet AG stations also measure temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and direction, dewpoint, barometric pressure, rainfall, leaf wetness and solar irradiance, and soil moisture and temperature. With the increase of extreme weather events having a significant impact on farms across the United States, this hyperlocal information is essential for more efficient irrigation and effective integrated pest management, leading to higher yield potential and a better return on investment.

The KestrelMet 6000 AG was developed in close cooperation with growers and leading integrated pest management organizations, resulting in a rugged unit designed to provide access to localized, live, continuous weather data that can be used to optimize irrigation and production on a field-by-field basis.

Ideal for use on farms, vineyards and orchards, the KestrelMet AG 6000 Weather Station provides reliable data for optimizing management practices, resulting in increased yields and reduced costs for irrigation, fertilizers, pesticides and labor. In addition to measuring real-time weather conditions, the KestrelMet also provides growers with field-specific data related to evapotranspiration (ET) and growing degree days (GDD) — key factors in managing for enhanced crop performance and efficient irrigation. The KestrelMet 6000 is also available for growers participating in the NEWA network pre-configured model compatibile with The Network for Weather Applications (NEWA) there a program at Cornell University that is used for IPM implementation in 21 states.

This weather station is an on-site monitoring solution for growers with irrigation who want an affordable option for easy access to their data without complex sensor, power and communication configuration decisions.It features cellular data transmission, allowing growers to view their data via the KestrelMet cloud on any mobile device within minutes.

Lowest Total Cost of Ownership

The KestrelMet 6000 AG is available with hardware and data plan subscriptions that cost less than half of what other leading companies charge. Starting at $1,299, it delivers the lowest total cost of ownership for a rugged, cellular agricultural weather station.

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Monica Devlin