Monitor your field from anywhere!

Now that we have a Field Connect system monitoring our soil moisture and weather conditions, the next step to being successful with it is monitoring the data we are collecting.  Like a yield monitor, if you are going to collect data from your field, but if you aren't going to look at the data, what's the point?  To get the most from the Field Connect system, it should be checked daily.  Make it part of your morning routine...sit down for breakfast, check the weather, check the markets, and check the Field Connect.  We have already discussed using the Field Connect website to view the soil moisture and weather conditions, but now we will take a look at the app.  This can be downloaded for free from the App Store or Google Play.  You will need to log on just like the website.  (The images are from an iPhone.  The Android app is similar.)

User ID: tractorcentraldemo
Password: tractor1

The first page you will see will show a quick glance of all of the Field Connects in your profile.  In this case it is just the demo one.

If you click on the probe, it will bring up some more options:

Here you can click on the graph to view a few select graphs.  The weather icon will show you recent weather data.  The next icon will display gateway information like signal strength and battery  info.  The fourth will show any notes that have been entered, and the last will show alerts.

The weather page will show the most recent data received.

 There are six graphs that you can view on the graphs page. You can look at 7, 14, or 30 days worth of data.  Swipe left or right to switch graphs.

Sum graph with budget lines

Line graph

Daily moisture change

Daily moisture change at each sensor

Growing degree days

Rainfall

If you turn your phone on it's side you can see the legend and a little bigger graph.

The data in the app is somewhat limited but you can get a pretty good idea of whats going on in your field.  If you see something you need to analyze further, you can log into the website for a more detailed look.

Timely rain

We just under two inches of rain at the Tractor Central Field Connect demo site on Monday.  If you have been following along you know that it was just in time.  You can see on the line graph that our graph was leveling out at every sensor the roots have reached.  This indicates that the corn is struggling to draw water at this level.  We used this data to adjust our budget lines since we don't want the moisture levels to drop below the point where the corn is struggling for water.  We do hope though, that this helped the corn to develop a good root system.

Although this field is not irrigated, we can look at the rainfall we have gotten this year and determine what would be the best amount of water to put on in one shot.  Below is the stacked view of the graph which helps to see how the water moves through the profile.  As you can see, I marked three rain events on the graph.  The others were all a quarter inch or less and barely registered.  The rain we got earlier in the season was just under a half inch and it did make it to the twelve inch sensor but only raised the moisture level of the four inch sensor.  

The next rain was an inch and soaked in more, but the rain we got Monday raised the water levels at all five sensors which will allow us to draw from the profile for a longer period of time before we need water again.  

As always, if you have further questions or would like more information you can use the contact form to the right or contact one of Tractor Central's integrated solutions specialists by calling one of our ten locations.