Weather stations for the Farm!

[boarderbloke]

SF3, seems the conversation on this thread is about collecting data, meaning that, these so called weather stations are/will give you information about what has already happened. It's history, old news! I suppose it may have some value if you have a frost in the spring and you have spraying to look after. A radio shack digital thermometer with hi and low memories could do that, how much would 20-30 of those cost?
The point I'm making is that I think the money would be better spent in forecasting. Getting a handle on hi and low temps forecast, humidity, wind speed and direction forecasts. Does the expense JD one offer predictions for weather the following day, will/can it forecast rainfall for the next day? If it can forecast and is accurate, maybe it's worth the money.
Does Drew et al offer personal forecasts as local as ones own farm, or specific to a single R.M.?

[furrowtickler]

I agree , we desperately need better 10 day forecasting than we need to know what happened yesterday. Most critical in our area from the 15th of May till the 2nd week of June. Every area will be different. But in western Canada that is a very critical time.

[farmaholic]

....you mean a forecast made Thursday before a long weekend has no chance of real change until everyone gets back to work at EnviroCanada on Monday... or Friday to Tuesday of a long weekend...!

[furrowtickler]

Yup - the May long weekend lol

[Richard5]

What am I missing with your thinking S3?

Sorry, I don't want to sound like an ass but when it freezes I know when I harvest the grain and when I shop it around in the next year for best grade and best price.

As some have posted, its another gadget and as you say, another tool in the tool box.

For the cost of that tool, I'd feel better giving that money to a charity

[ado089]

It's sad that more farmers aren't embracing this kind of data. I'm sure most of you getting up SF3 ass farm in a nice 10 mile radius and what you see out your window in the morning is what you get on the whole farm. Some of us are spread out and having information like rainfall, temp and wind speed are nice to know before loading up and moving the sprayer 45 miles. Even having some production benchmarks like bu/inch of rain or more accurate heat unit measurements can be big money makers when it comes to variety selection. Better data would also improve access to risk management tools like weather derivatives.

[MBgrower]

Davis vantage pro2. $1500. it has solar power onboard, and you can daisy chain repeaters all the way back to the farm. Not sure if they have a celluar option yet. Just need to clean the bird shit out of the rain guage once in a while so it doesnt plug.

[SASKFARMER3]

Like the vantage pro2 they have a new version out.

[Ache4Acres]

Davis vantage says repeater spread upto 1000ft apart. In my experience that means realistically 500-750ft...takes a heck of a lot of repeaters to make that work over any distance

Needs cellular

[TOM4CWB]

Wunderground.com

Weather Underground costs about $400/station, there are literally thousands across N America.

Has everything including radar and tracking storms; cell hookups through wifi... no monthly cost... very good forecasts... part of the Weather Network system... we have reported on this before.

Cheers!

[MBgrower]

Davis yagi antanaes claim several miles of transmission. Has anyone tried these?