Irrigation is one of the most critical components of crop management and plant health, and is often the most difficult input to manage throughout the year. Many other crop inputs, such as fertilizer and crop protection chemicals, are secondary if crop water needs are not being met.
It’s not just about making sure the plant has water. It’s about making sure the plant has the right amount of water, at the right time, and in the right place.
It’s an exciting time to be in the crop production business with respect to crop monitoring and irrigation management. Aerial imagery, instruments to measure plant water status, soil moisture monitoring, and instruments to measure plant water usage on a field level are all on the market and in use. Several years of drought in California have brought agriculture’s water use into the spotlight, resulting in an explosion of companies and new technologies to measure and optimize crop water usage.
We’re working with companies and research projects in the area of irrigation management, and excited about the level of precision it brings to the arena. At this time, however, we’re unable to dedicate full time staff to assist growers in the area of continuous plant and soil measurement to schedule irrigation requirements.
We are able to work with you to help diagnose and correct water related issues to maximize crop yield and quality, and recommend companies, instruments, and technologies that suit your requirements for irrigation management. It’s an important area of agronomy, and the technology that accompanies it is developing at a fast pace.
We’re happy to discuss the subject, and share what we’ve learned consulting on thousands of acres utilizing a variety of technologies to optimize plant water use.