The 2022 agricultural season of the August-Agro agricultural company in Tatarstan for the first time began with its own weather stations: this spring they were installed and put into operation. There are 10 new stations operating on the territory of the republic: two at the August-Kamskoe Ustye farm, two at August-Leninogorsk, four at August-Muslyum, and one each at August-Tyulyachi and August-Kaibitsy. The range of weather station sensors is 14–15 kilometers, and the coverage area exceeds 90% of the land bank of Avgust-Agro Management Company in the region.
The installation of iMETOS weather stations in the fields (developed by Pessl Instruments from SAS) has become the next step of Avgust-Agro in the implementation of smart farming principles. The agronomists of the Augusta farms have already been trained in handling the new equipment. Work with agrometeorological data is carried out through the FieldClimate cloud platform. Access to information is carried out both using the web interface and through the mobile application. A narrowly focused service, focused specifically on working with weather stations, provides an opportunity for in-depth analysis of measurements, making forecasts and determining the optimal "windows" for carrying out certain agrotechnological activities. In addition, integration with the Cropwise software product, a common system for remote control of farmland used in Augusta agricultural firms, has been set up. This integration allows information from weather stations not only to get to the own platform of a particular station, but also to be used in information system algorithms for calculating, for example, maturation models.
“Equipment for meteorological measurements, which each station is equipped with, provides an opportunity to obtain a wide range of data on temperature, precipitation, air humidity, wind speed, direction and gustiness, solar radiation, etc. Each farm has one weather station with a sensor for humidity, temperature and soil salinity, which makes it possible to measure these indicators at a depth of up to 115 cm. It can be used, in particular, to find out the degree of freezing of the earth. At the beginning of the current sowing campaign, we already relied on the information received about the soil, determining the optimal temperature and humidity at the depth of sowing seeds,” says Dmitry Shaplyko, head of the control and monitoring department of August-Agro Management Company.
Avgust-Agro specialists tested the accuracy of agrometeorological data obtained through the stations: for example, the amount of precipitation was checked using a measuring cup installed next to the station, and the indicators of the sensors coincided with the results of physical measurements. The necessary information is read by the sensors every 15 minutes and transmitted to the server every half an hour - this is enough to form an objective picture of the weather conditions. The communication frequency can be reduced at the end of the growing season and thus reduce the battery consumption of the weather station.
The service for working with weather stations also allows you to predict weather conditions: for example, agronomists have a map at their disposal that shows where and where clouds are moving from and what precipitation can be expected. The entire history of observations is saved. With the accumulation of data, specialists will be able to compare which year was more or less successful for crop production in terms of weather.
“Weather stations and related services are used in virtually all stages of work: we need to work with the soil, conduct a sowing campaign, fertilize, protect plants, and harvest. Using the service interface, an agronomist at one stage or another, say, before a sowing campaign, can select the appropriate section and find the crop of interest there. Based on the available agrometeorological data, the platform will suggest the optimal "windows" for the work. The most commonly used indicators are the amount of precipitation, air temperature, soil temperature. To determine the best time to spray, parameters such as wind speed and delta T, the difference between dry and wet bulb readings that indicate the rate of water evaporation, are added to the analyzed data. It is necessary to take this indicator into account, in particular, to prevent too rapid drying of the pesticide solution droplets on the leaf, which can reduce the level of absorption of the drug by the plant and the effectiveness of treatments,” says Dmitry Shaplyko.
Working with weather data also helps to more successfully deal with specific pests, plant diseases and weeds: if necessary, the service allows you to select one or another pathogen and, based on the available temperature and humidity factors, calculate the level of potential risk of its development. This opens up a wide range of possibilities for preventive measures: for example, pre-treatment of crops with a reduced application rate of the drug or using more affordable products. This helps not only to optimize the use of plant protection products, but also to more effectively preserve the potential yield.