If you manage crops, whether in a small market garden, or a multi-section corporate farm, or are involved with turf maintenance, you need accurate weather data to help in your decision making on irrigation, pest and disease control  etc. Whilst there are many weather forecasting services available, they base their forecasts on weather stations located a some distance from your own site, taking no account of local variations in important aspects such as wind speed and frost hollows. And, as we all know, forecasts are not always reliable.

For precise real time data on conditions at your own site, a Davis weather station is an affordable alternative that will give you data not just on today's weather, but can provide invaluable statistics on recent weather conditions, such as monthly rainfall, plus an archive potentially showing past weather conditions over a number of years.

At Prodata we can help you through the decision process, choosing which sensors are right for you, and how to link the system together in the most cost effective way. Even the standard Vantage Pro stations can measure: wind speed and direction, temperature, rainfall, humidity and pressure. Solar intensity and UV sensors are readily added to any Vantage Pro stations to provide important further data on growing conditions. For example, the solar sensor allows the calculation of evapotranspiration amounts. Specialist sensors of particular interest to users in agriculture can also be included in systems based on wireless VP stations, including:

• Soil temperature (measurable at up to four depths or locations with a single supplementary station);
• Additional air and water temperature and humidity values;
• Soil moisture (again measurable at up to four depths or locations)
• Leaf wetness;

Adding the optional Weatherlink data logger and software package to a standard or enhanced station creates an invaluable detailed record of weather conditions, with all past information accessible at the touch of a button. The software has special features to provide monthly and yearly reports and statistics that include basic parameters such as rainfall, but which also extend to, for example, evapotranspiration values, growing degree days and various other horticultural measures. The  version 5.5 of the Weatherlink software will see the introduction of further optional modules of interest to user groups such as those involved in turf management.

Prices for a typical weather station plus data logger and software package will start at about £600 (excl VAT) - which works out at only £16 a month over 3 years. And for this you get not only real time weather reporting and data logging features, but the Davis systems have a huge variety of alarm functions available, which can be set to alert you when certain conditions prevail, prompting you to take immediate action. The stations are also capable of generating their own basic forecast based on purely local conditions.

Our existing customers include fruit farmers, mushroom growers, coffee growers, and arable farmers, plus those in related fields such as green keepers for golf courses and groundsmen managing sports ground facilities.

Please contact us for further information on either the standard weather stations or those with more specialist features.

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