The project is supported by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the Kensington North Watersheds Association, Eastlink, the former P.E.I. Adapt Council, and Leith and Midge Murray of Spring Valley, sharing the goal of providing high quality weather information to increase the potential of profit for farmers while reducing environmental risk details a press release.
The AgWeather Atlantic Network is a leading agriculture weather information service, linked to more than 150 stations across the four Atlantic provinces, including 17 stations on P.E.I. It provides an impressively wide range of graphs, trends, general forecasts, and agriculture-specific forecasts and tools on its website.
The value of data is extended by the addition of the Baltic station, which provides wind speed and direction, taken every five minutes and posted as an hourly average. Rainfall accumulations are reported for 3, 6, 12, 24 and 48- hour periods, as well as registering totals for the previous two to five days.
Plans are to continue improving the amount and quality of the information as new software and technologies become available.
“Farmers are on their computers all the time. They go hand in hand,” for managing crops in changing factors such as wind and blight conditions, said Leith Murray, who facilitated the placement of the station because of its potential in such a central area of potato production that rotates with crops like soy and cereals.
“The more high-quality data you have available at your fingertips, the better decisions you can make,” praised Barry Murray, executive director of the Kensington North Watersheds Association.
The P.E.I. Federation of Agriculture is working with its members and project partners to alert more farmers about the service and encourage user feedback.
“Local, timely weather reporting that focuses on agriculture and farming is an important tool that we welcome,” stated Federation president Alvin Keenan.
Dr. Erin Smith, a scientist at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Truro, N.S., considers the AgWeather Atlantic website to have a focus very different than other weather and climate sites.
“AgWeather Atlantic will give producers the data and decision support tools to help with on-farm business risk management,” she said.
Applications for smartphones, which would make the information available from a tractor or in the field, are currently in development for intended release in the spring of 2015.
Harold Barker, president of the Kensington North Watersheds Association appreciates the wide scope of use the information provides.
“Kensington North is glad to help provide a service that will both help farmers and also has the potential of helping to protect our water and environment,” he said.
The AgWeather Atlantic Network is accessible at http://atl.agrometeo.org.
