Technology | Fall 2008
Applied weather Information.
By linking weather and agronomic data, Bayer CropScience’s Weather Command Centre helps farmers make more informed crop management decisions
Farmers across the prairies have to check several sources for the latest weather, agronomic and commodity information. Bayer CropScience is bringing it all together. Information from such sources as WeatherBug stations, Environment Canada, and the Canadian Wheat Board is being presented at a single location.
The Bayer Weather Command Centre uses WeatherBug’s software to display output from weather stations across Canada, allowing individual users to set their default location and access information that’s relevant to them.
“We launched this site in spring of 2007 to 430 retailers and to 950 of our grower customers,” says John Hanson, portfolio manager, Targeted Grower and Retail Strategy with Bayer CropScience Inc. “We plan to open it up to 1,000 more growers in the coming season and we hope to be able to offer it to more growers in the future.”
Data is sent to the Command Centre every two seconds for real-time results. After logging into the Command Centre, users can look at daily and monthly conditions, and graph weather information to assess trends. The system is linked to WeatherBug stations across Canada and the U.S. for a big-picture look at what different agricultural areas are facing.
“Growers can find basic information like their current temperature, recent rainfall, or wind conditions,” says Hanson. “But they can also go back and look at conditions any time in the past 120 days.” That helps identify links between current crop problems and weather events that happened weeks or even months in the past.
The site also includes a commodities tab that gives current prices by crop; a product and resources section which links to provincial agricultural departments; and program calculators.
And that’s not all. The Command Centre offers other services such as risk maps for weather-related issues. Sclerotina and fusarium models developed by WeatherBug are linked to disease management guides. In the future, new models for winter kill, test weight and protein levels may be developed.
“We hope that over time, we’ll be able to add more capabilities to provide growers with tools they can use,” says Hanson. “From feedback we’ve received so far, this site can be addictive and growers have begun to rely on it. We want to make sure that the weather-related information presented is what they need, when they need it.”
For more information, contact Bayer CropScience’s toll-free HelpDesk at 1-888-283-6847. FF
