Weather is all farmers think about during the spring planting season. From monitoring if and when it will rain to if it is even the right time to plant, a decision that is very critical and often must be made in a matter of a few hours.
Horizon Point from the University of Missouri College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources (CAFNR) is an educational program is designed to make precise weather information available to Missouri landowners in a way that assists them in managing their business through site-specific weather. The farmer can tailor how they want to receive the data in daily, weekly, or custom time-frame emails.
Each email includes information on daily and forecasted precipitation, air and soil temperatures and wind provided by the National Weather Service and the Missouri Commercial Agriculture Automated Weather Station Network. Reports come in from CAFNR’s out-state research centers and several additional locations across Missouri. CAFNR’s centers reach into the far northwest corner of the state at Graves-Chapple Research Center in Rock Port, across to Greenley Research Center near Kirksville and down into the Bootheel at Fisher Delta Research Center in Portageville.
Advisories also are included in the email such as weed and scouting aids, planting depth soil temperature, rainfall runoff estimator, animal comfort
An example of a report from Horizon Point.indices, fall nitrogen application charts, and even stored grain moisture tables.
“This data is easily one of the most useful tools this time of year,” said John Travlos, MU Extension system administrator in agricultural economics. “And not just for big, row-crop farmers. Vegetable producers and even backyard gardeners can benefit from this information.”
The emailed reports contain hyperlinks to management information such as weed seedling pictures and how to use equilibrium moisture content to maintain stored grain quality.
After creating an account, Horizon Point subscribers are a given a secure account page where they can manage information selections, email frequency and advisories. Archives of site-specific daily reports can be accessed as well.
To sign up for Horizon Point emails, visit http://agebb.missouri.edu/horizonpoint/. For more information, call 573-884-6311 or send an email to HorizonPoint@missouri.edu.