UC software provides specific weather data for small grains

New software that lets farmers compare seasonal rainfall and temperature patterns for their specific location for any period of time since 2009 can be added to the growing list of programs to help small-grain growers access information more quickly and easily.

If the weather pattern this season seems similar to a year in the past when the farmer had the same crop in the ground, the program provides information on how similar the rain and temperature have been. It's available at smallgrains.ucanr.edu/General_Production/weather.

"For growers and agronomists, location-specific weather information is essential to understand plant growth and water use," said Taylor Nelsen, University of California, Davis, assistant specialist. "It is also important for planning field management activities such as fertilization and irrigation."

The weather software was developed by a team of UC small-grains researchers including Nelsen, UC Davis software engineer Gabriel Rosa, UC Davis research support engineer Justin Merz and UC Cooperative Extension grain cropping systems specialist Mark Lundy.

Nelsen said the goal of the software is to let farmers, pest control advisors and researchers find historical temperature and precipitation data that is extremely local.

"Weather patterns are highly variable across the state of California," she explained. "They change from year to year and across locations. While parts of the state may be experiencing drought conditions this year, each location can have dramatically different weather."

The simplest use of the program, Nelsen said, is to enter a specific location to see how much precipitation there has been, and when it has fallen, since the current rain year began on Oct. 1, plus changes in the daily minimum and maximum temperatures during that time. The site also provides information to compare the current numbers to historical averages for the location.

"Users can choose a specific location and enter a date range of interest," she said. "The website uses these inputs to produce interactive graphs of precipitation and temperature patterns. The graphs show the historical, 10-year average and current-season data, making it easy to compare this season to other seasons and to see changes over time."

Nelsen said a user can also do a quick comparison between the current year and any year in the last decade that seemed to have similar weather. Such a comparison could come in handy in making management decisions about irrigating or fertilizing a crop, if the same variety was grown under similar conditions during a season in the recent past.

The program can also provide forecasts on the amount of precipitation and the likely minimum and maximum temperatures during the next 10 days.

"Forecasts are also available in the main crop-growing regions of California," Nelsen said. "Users can also download their location-specific data for further exploration."

The weather app represents the latest effort to make research information available via smartphone to small-grains farmers in a simplified format, which began with the introduction of a variety-selection tool.

That program lets users enter whether they want to plant common or durum wheat or triticale; select a planting season and region; choose the relative importance of yield, protein levels or stripe rust resistance; and, with one click, learn which varieties are good candidates, based on UC trials during the last few years. The variety-selection tool may be found at smallgrains.ucanr.edu/Variety_Selection.

(Bob Johnson is a reporter in Sacramento. He may be contacted at bjohn11135@gmail.com.)