Companies provide farmers with water-efficiency data
that aims to bring high technology to the job of making irrigation as precise as pos- sible isWaterBit. This company’s system starts with car- bon nodes that sense soil moisture and send the information to the cloud, where softwareuses it tomakewater recommen- dations or even control an irrigation sys- tem remotely. WaterBit’s goal is to use its patentedsensors andsoftware to increase yields and usewatermore efficiently. Another irrigation-oriented tech start- up at the Innovation Center has devel- oped connections during the last few years with California farmers interested in their systembased on permanent soil moisture sensors. “We’ve been working with California farmers since early 2016,” said Patrick Henry, CEOof GroGuru. “We sell to farm- ers that have a few hundred thousand acres under management in California. We sell acrossmultiple crop types.” The GroGuru system begins with sen-
sorspermanentlyburiedintherootzone— but beneath tillage levels—that send soil moisture information to the cloud, where software generates recommendations on how irrigation can be managed to maxi- mize efficiency and profit. Henry said the systemallows farmers to increasecropyieldandusewater andoth- er resources more efficiently, employing a patented wireless underground system for soilmonitoring, anAI-based systemto generate irrigationrecommendationsand what he described as a “farmer-friendly user interface.” The technology allows for permanent installation of soil sensors, even in annual field crops, he said. Henry said the company’s subscrip- tion-based systemcanhelp farmers save 10% to 20% in costs for inputs including water, while improving yields by a sim- ilar proportion. ( Bo b J o hn s on i s a r e p o r t e r i n Sacramento. He may be contacted at bjohn11135@gmail.com.) provide the informationandhelpgrowers make optimummanagement decisions.” The project is funded by the Almond Board of California, the CaliforniaWalnut Board and a specialty crop block grant from the California Department of Food andAgriculture. (Kathy Coatne y i s a repor t e r in Bend, Oregon. She may be contacted at kacoatney@gmail.com.)
ByBob Johnson Newtechnologies intend tohelp farmers translate amountainof detailed soilmois-
pellor meters are out of calibration, sowe likehavinganother source for the informa- tion.Wewant tobe smarter farmers.” SWIIM is among the water-manage- ment tech firms housed at the Center for Innovation & Technology that Western GrowersopenedinSalinas fiveyearsagoto nurtureinnovativestartups thatmighthelp agriculture respond tonewchallenges. Some of these firms base their services on advanced soil sensors that sendmois- turedata to the cloud, where softwareuses it togeneraterecommendations;othersuse irrigation information todevelopstrategies tomaximize revenue; and others generate preciserecordsofhowwaterisactuallyused ina format that canbeshowntoregulators, customersor irrigationdecisionmakers. “We do what your CPA does for finan- cial records,” said Kevin France, CEO of SWIIM. “Wecalculate thewaterbalanceof a field, every drop that goes in, every drop that comes out, and the cost.” He said the SWIIMreports showwhere the water went in a field and when, and offerscertificationof sustainable irrigation that could become evenmore important as SGMA takes effect. “We can tell youwhere your water goes, because every drop counts,” France said. “Growers savemoney on theirwater,meet reportingrequirements,getbetteryieldsand providecertificationthatsomebuyerswant.” Another startup at the Salinas center
ture and weather data into informed irrigationdecisions to use water most efficiently, while maintaining de- tailed information tosatisfyregulators.
“Data is going to be king under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act,” saidDonCameron, generalmanager of Terranova Ranch in FresnoCounty and president of the California State Board of Food and Agriculture. “We want to have third-partydataonourwater use for all the cropswehave.” Terranova is among the farmswitha to- tal of 120,000acres that have signedup the last fiveyearswithastartupwateraccount- ing firm known by the acronym SWIIM, for Sustainable Water and Innovative IrrigationManagement. SWIIMsays it uses a combinationof re- moteand in-fieldsensors to senddetailed informationtoremoteservers inthecloud, where software develops precise reports ofwhere andhoweverydropofwater that goes into the field is being used. “We’ve been able to track our water use andtrackitcloser totheEtcurve,”Cameron said. “Wehave found thatmanyof thepro-
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us to estimate orchardwater use efficien- cy,”Kisekka said, adding that the informa- tion helps determine how well the trees are doing. Oneof theresearchobjectives is toshow farmers how to use all this data to make management decisions. “You could have a lot data without in- formation,” Kisekka said, “andwe want to
CALIFORNIA IRRIGATION MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM CIMIS REPORT | www.cimis.water.ca.gov
For the week September 24 - September 30, 2020 ETO (INCHES/WEEK)
YEAR
3.0
THIS YEAR
2.5
LAST YEAR AVERAGE YEAR
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
MACDOEL II (236)
BIGGS (244)
DAVIS (06)
MANTECA (7O)
FIREBAUGH (7)
SALINAS-SOUTH (214)
FIVE POINTS (2)
SHAFTER (5)
TEMECULA (62)
IMPERIAL (87)
THIS YEAR LAST YEAR AVG. YEAR % FROM AVG.
1.02 .77 .87 15
1.32 1.05 1.12 18
1.39 1.34 1.30 7
1.31 1.31 1.16 13
1.25 1.10 1.03 20
1.46 1.24 1.21 22
1.26 1.18 1.14 11
1.14 1.00 .98 16
1.11 .61 1.12 0
1.49 1.51 1.49 0
W eekly reference evapotranspiration (ETo) is the rate of water use (evapotranspiration—the sum of soil evaporation and crop transpiration) for healthy pasture grass. Multiplying ETo by the appropriate “crop coefficient” gives estimates of the ET for other crops. For example, assume ETo on June 15 is 0.267 inches and the crop coefficient for corn on that day is 1.1. Multiplying ETo by the coefficient (0.26 inches x 1.1) results in a corn ET of 0.29 inches. This
information is useful in determining the amount and timing of irriga- tion water. Contact Richard Snyder, UC Davis, for information on coefficients, 530-752-4628. The 10 graphs provide weekly ETo rates for selected areas for average year, last year and this year. The ETo information is provided by the California Irrigation Management Information System (CIMIS) of the California Department of Water Resources.
For information contact the DWR district office or DWR state headquarters:
SACRAMENTO HEADQUARTERS: 916-651-9679 • 916-651-7218
NORTHERN REGION: Red Bluff 530-529-7301
NORTH CENTRAL REGION: West Sacramento 916-376-9630
SOUTH CENTRAL REGION:
SOUTHERN REGION:
Fresno 559-230-3334
Glendale 818-500-1645 x247 or x243
October 7, 2020 Ag Alert 23
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