The Importance of Wireless Field Monitoring Systems in Agricultural Operations

Introduction

In recent years, there has been an increase in the use of in-field monitoring technologies by commercial growers and researchers to collect high-resolution environmental data. These wireless field monitoring systems allow for the effective and cost-efficient monitoring of hyper-localized environmental conditions, providing insights that are essential for improving crop and greenhouse management as well as environmental research.

Overview of Wireless Field Monitoring Systems

Field monitoring systems provide real-time data about conditions in the field, which can be used to optimize agricultural operations and increase efficiency. These systems can also help farmers and other professionals meet the increasing demand for sustainability by reducing the use of water and pesticides and improving the sustainability of their operations.er applications. They allow for continuous, real-time monitoring of conditions in the field, such as temperature, humidity, soil moisture, and weather conditions. This can help farmers and other professionals make informed decisions about irrigation, fertilization, pest management, and other aspects of crop management.

Wireless field monitoring systems can provide a number of benefits for agriculture and other applications. They allow for continuous, real-time monitoring of conditions in the field, such as temperature, humidity, soil moisture, and weather conditions. This can help farmers and other professionals make informed decisions about irrigation, fertilization, pest management, and other aspects of crop management.

Advantages of Wireless Field Monitoring Systems

Many high-value crops are sensitive to microclimate variations such as temperature, rainfall, and soil moisture, which directly affect quality and profitability. Growers of these types of crops can benefit from a wireless field monitoring solution that covers the critical areas in their fields, enabling them to be proactive and extra diligent in mitigating risks associated with insufficient water, excess heat, mildew, mold, and frost, which can impact their yields.

For researchers, wireless field monitoring systems that provide more comprehensive data can be beneficial for gaining more insights and more definitive conclusions.

Due to cost and practical limitations, growers who use weather stations typically only have one or two units deployed in their fields, limiting their monitoring range to those one or two spots. This is sufficient where field conditions are uniform, but in settings where conditions are variable, the ability to monitor a greater number of points throughout the growing area enables better-informed decisions that more accurately reflect the diversity of the environment. Wireless sensor networks allow
growers to not only monitor multiple locations in their fields, but also to do it cost-effectively, because they can funnel data through a single web-enabled station.

With wired stand-alone data loggers, growers can also monitor many points in their fields. However, stand-alone loggers require the grower to manually download data, eliminating the ability to make decisions in real time, such as with frost alarms.
Wireless sensors—which can be now obtained at costs similar to data
loggers—enable growers to receive data through the web and conduct near real-time monitoring, without having to visit the field.

Monitor a wide area with a wireless field monitoring system.

Addressing Commercial Agricultural Challenges

To increase the efficiency of agricultural operations and stay competitive, growers face pressure to minimize input costs and maximize yield. At the same time, water and pesticides— two of the highest input costs—are under greater scrutiny as governments and consumers place a higher priority on sustainability. Field monitoring systems can go a long way toward addressing these and other challenges.

Protecting Against Climate Hazards

In many areas, growers must deal with climate hazard risks such as frost or dry soil, which can impact yields. Frost is an especially serious concern that can potentially cause partial or total loss of crops.

Hills, valleys, and other variations in topography—which affect the amount of sun, shade, and wind exposure—can produce diverse microclimates across an agricultural landscape and greatly influence if and where frost will occur. For example, low points in a valley—where cold air will settle—create conditions that are
more prone to frost formation. Valleys also tend to shelter against stronger winds, which is another factor that increases the risk of frost. Similarly, soil moisture can vary dramatically based on topology, soil type, and irrigation system variation.

Reducing Water Use

Globally, water scarcity is a growing concern. With agriculture accounting for over 70 percent of freshwater use in most regions of the world and approximately 80 percent in the United States, growers face increasing social and regulatory pressure to incorporate more efficient watermanagement practices.

Another driver for minimizing water usage is the rising cost of water, including the energy costs associated with conveyance. However, growers can’t risk cutting water use to a level that will impact their yields. That’s why it’s increasingly important for growers to optimize their irrigation methods. Look for a system that allows you to visualize conditions across diverse microclimates.

Wireless sensor networks deployed across an agricultural operation can measure soil moisture to determine where irrigation should be applied and how much water should be used. By irrigating only the areas that need water, growers can cut usage and reduce operational costs without sacrificing crop yields. Growers can also reduce their water use by using evapotranspiration (ET) to manage irrigation. Some wireless field monitoring systems provide reference ET, which can be multiplied by crop coefficients to determine crop water use. Growers only need to irrigate as needed to make up the difference between the rainfall received and the water used by crops.

Minimizing Pesticide and Fungicide Use

Pesticide and fungicide use represent one of the highest operational costs for growers. Applications can run as high as $100/acre per application, with some crops requiring multiple applications to prevent crop loss due to hazards such as mildew, mold, or insects.

The risk of disease and pests is a function of exposure to environmental factors such as temperature, humidity, and leaf wetness. By monitoring these conditions over time, growers can assess the probability of disease or pest emergence occurring in their crops and use these estimates to help optimize their treatment applications—employing pesticides and fungicides only as needed to prevent outbreaks.

By using pesticides and fungicides only as needed to prevent outbreaks, growers may be able to eliminate one or two applications per growing season, resulting in substantial savings. By eliminating just one spraying per season, a typical 100-acre vineyard could save up to $10,000. Moreover, by reducing spraying applications, growers will also be decreasing the amount of pesticides and fungicides that get released into the air and soil, allowing for improvements from a sustainability perspective.

Improving Harvest Timing and Crop Quality

The timing of a harvest is often critical to attaining the highest potential in crop quality. For vineyards in Portugal, as an example, the timing of grape harvests can make the difference in how the wine is rated, which in turn can dramatically influence the per-bottle-price that consumers are willing to pay. Portuguese vineyards are known to time their harvests based on the sugar content, pH, and feel of the grapes, in addition to the color of the leaves and climate conditions during ripening. For instance, rain before a harvest is not favorable as moisture dilutes the sugar content, causing flavor loss. But while rain and temperature are the biggest drivers in harvest timing, solar radiation can also impact how the grapes ripen.

Vineyards—and especially those with microclimate variations—can benefit from wireless sensor networks to more thoroughly track rain, temperature, relative humidity, and light throughout different areas. In doing so, owners will be able to gain a more accurate understanding of conditions throughout the entire vineyard, helping them to develop a better model for timing their harvests.

Solar radiation graph over 6 days

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