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.