What is agricultural forecasting?
Crops are clearly sensitive to weather. And sometimes something can be done about it. Knowing that the next few days will be rain-free can prompt a farmer to make hay while the sun is shining, and thus maximize the yield. Forecasts of winds can assist in aerial application of chemicals while avoiding herbicide drift onto a neighbor’s tomato field or organically grown fruit. Frost and freeze forecasts can be a call to action to fire up smudge pots, turn on wind machines or water sprinkling systems in the citrus groves. Cold, low lying spots in Wisconsin can have frost even during summer. Cranberries growing in the shallow bogs can be protected by flooding the field. The application of agricultural chemicals as well as irrigation water can be timed much more precisely and economically by monitoring past weather and matching it to predicted conditions.