METOS weather station case study

Measuring and interpreting weather and the effects it has on day-to-day operations is key to any farming system. Never more so than now with farmers having to battle with more precise sowing windows, moisture availability, forecasted rain events, disease pressures, spray conditions and more. Nearly all of which are directly related back to what the weather is doing. “If you can’t measure it you can’t manage it” as they say.

Weather measurement is undoubtedly a big driver behind everything Peter McMahon and his family do on their irrigation and dryland cropping operation at Euroley, south of Leeton in NSW.

The farming operation is more than an hour and a half away from where Peter is based in Wagga Wagga and understanding what is going on remotely on the farm at any given time is key to being able to farm as well as work full time in the livestock industry as a livestock buyer. Peter admits that timing is everything with his operation and without access to localised weather data, hyperlocalised weather forecasting and moisture probe data from his METOS weather stations he couldn’t do what he does.

Co-ordinating contractors for spraying and other operations is also made simpler with the contractors having access to the data as well allowing them to organise their operations around what is required on farm for Peter.

They grow winter and summer crops with two very distinct soil types. For this Peter utilises soil moisture probe data in both soil types to help with his decision making in both his dryland & irrigation side of operations.

“Without the main METOS weather station, weather forecasting and the moisture probes across the farm I don’t know how I would farm without them now,” Peter said. We are now sure that having more accurate on farm weather information has improved our operations 2-fold rather than having to rely on the BOM information and forecasting which isn’t accurate enough for our location.

Author: Sam Eyres - METOS