How WeatherHawk is used in agriculture

A hundred years ago, farmers predicted the weather by sniffing the wind and squinting into the sky. Today's farms are efficient, high-tech businesses managed by educated professionals, but their success still depends largely on meeting the challenges of the weather.

From the 200-acre family dairy operation to the multi-section corporate farm modern agriculture demands precise real-time weather data. If you manage a farm, ranch, vineyard, orchard, or greenhouse, WeatherHawk can help you make prudent operating decisions based on actual local conditions.

Most Internet-based weather services get their information from government or private weather networks. Some attempt to adjust the data for regional variations, but the data is usually accurate only where the measurements took place. Local terrain, soil, buildings, bodies of water and other variables can dramatically influence air temperature, humidity and wind patterns. The data you get on the Internet may be a poor representation of conditions in your locality.

A WeatherHawk on your farm gives site-specific weather data, in real time, at a cost-effective price—data you can count on when you’re making critical management decisions.

Examples of agricultural applications for the WeatherHawk include:

• Aerial spraying operations: a portable WeatherHawk can be set up on site in minutes to better predict the potential for over spray from wind drift
• Crop management: a WeatherHawk helps a farm manager know when conditions are appropriate to seed, fertilize, apply herbicides, or harvest
• Hay production: the WeatherHawk can tell you when conditions are optimal for cutting and properly curing hay prior to baling, and when rainfall threatens to cause mold
• Forestry:
  • several WeatherHawks, with longitudinal recordation of weather data, can assess the suitability of sites for planting particular species of trees and point to optimal planting times
  • track rainfall, heat, and humidity to help access forest fire danger
  • monitor conditions for and during a proscribed burn.
• Livestock production:
  • herd protection procedures can be instituted when temperatures reach pre-set values
  • youngstock can be moved to protect them from weather stress
  • rainfall sensors can tell farm managers when range herds may not have access to adequate water
• Vineyards and orchards:
  • when frost can mean the difference between a good year and a disaster, your WeatherHawk’s alarm feature can tell you when temperature and dew point are at critical values.
  • you can monitor the micro-climates on an extensive property by using more than one WeatherHawk wirelessly linked to a single host PC.

With a WeatherHawk weather station, your vineyard, ranch, orchard, or farm can add real-time weather information, integrated with a WebCam, to your website. You have an effective marketing tool when the WeatherHawk reports cool breezes and a clear sky, and the WebCam shows a quaint tasting room with a hillside backdrop of vines.

For those applications that require sensors for soil moisture, leaf wetness, soil temperature, etc., to supplement your weather data, contact a WeatherHawk system integrator.

WeatherHawk’s ease of installation, low maintenance requirements, automatic data storage, data management, and internet compatibility make it a cost effective choice for agriculture and ranching concerns that require real-time, location specific weather information.

Considering the WeatherHawk, but concerned about the installation?

It usually takes less than an hour for a buyer to install a new WeatherHawk system. You can download free copies of the WeatherHawk data sheet, Quick Start Guide, and Site Installation Guide from this website. Use the information to determine the best location for a WeatherHawk, then place your order online.

Satisfy both your agricultural management needs and your public information requirements for regional weather with an accurate, reliable, fully automatic WeatherHawk weather station!