“Having your own personal weather station provides multiple benefits if you are a farmer,” says Peter Palmer, Sales and Development at Prodata Weather Systems. “Knowledge of wind speed and direction is vital for maintaining good spraying records and for making the decision to spray or not, while rainfall monitoring and information about the soil moisture can improve irrigation decisions.”
The Ely-based business is a supplier of Davis Weather Instruments, collecting real-time meteorology data on-site to record recent and current conditions; assisting with crop and time management. The devices can also detect if the soil is too dry, damp or cold for effective seed drilling and increases accuracy in irrigation management.
Palmer says: “Farmers often base their forecasts on weather stations located some distance from their own site, which can be unreliable. Our product allows instant decisions to be made by providing field level accuracy, and we can combine forecast weather information with local station data to provide hyper-local predictions.”
Data can be stored and accessed via the cloud (by a tablet, smartphone or PC/laptop), and full weather records can be accessed and reviewed to compare yields to growing conditions throughout the year.
Prodata Weather Systems will be showcasing three Davis weather monitoring solutions at Agri-Tech East’s REAP Conference on 9 November. Visitors will see the Davis Vantage Connect (an add-on unit which transmits local sensor data direct to the cloud), Davis 6334OV Wireless Vantage Pro 2 Solar /AG ISS (wind speed, direction, barometric pressure, solar sensor, temperature/humidity sensor and rain gauge) and Davis 6345 Wireless Leaf and Soil Moisture/Temperature station.
Looking forward to REAP
Peter (pictured left) believes that their accurate and cost-effective products are a perfect solution for the agri-tech market:
“We are excited to explore further opportunities in the agricultural sector perhaps integrating with other systems such as disease monitoring and prediction. We expect some exciting and ground-breaking new products to be released in the near future.”
Existing customers include arable farmers, fruit farmers, dairy producers, field trials companies and coffee growers. The company also takes on clients from a range of sectors, including industry, education, sport and renewables.
For further information on Prodata Weather Systems and the REAP Conference in Hinxton, Cambridge, please click here: bit.ly/REAP-2016
