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52 THE RURAL VOICE
AgriTech
Searching the Internet for vacation info
By Janice Becker
Just how important is knowing the
weather forecast? Is the timing of the
next soaking rainfall critical to your
farming operation or does a week of
temperatures in excess of 30 degrees
make a difference when deciding
which tasks you will undertake?
If climatic factors are crucial to
the efficient and improved operation
of your business, the information can
be had — at a price — sometimes.
Though one might think locating
weather data online would be a
relatively easy undertaking, finding
pertinent material may be more
stressful than watching the summer
sky for incoming disaster.
After reading several articles in a
western Canadian farm magazine,
which listed what appeared to be
several good sites on the web, I went
looking for data specific to the east-
ern half of the country. Unfortunately,
many of the sites surfed were geared
to the prairie provinces, American
states or were just too general.
The Environment Canada site, at
www.weatheroffice.com, was helpful
in that you could request info for a
specific area centred around a
reasonably -sized community (eg.
Goderich). However, the data
provided was similar to what one
might hear on the nightly newscast —
partly cloudy with a 40 per cent
chance of precipitation and a
maximum temperature of 28 degrees.
Not terribly useful if trying to
determine the right time to apply a
herbicide.
Accuweather.com displayed
interesting satellite images showing
precipitation bands or cloud move-
ments, on a relatively up -to -the -
minute basis. I checked at 10:45 a.m.
and the radar map had been updated
at 10:30. However, the 8:00 a.m. map
had been displayed until that time.
While I was able to get a general
forecast for Blyth by entering the
postal code, I could not take advant-
age of more specific info for agricul-
ture as a American zip code was
required.
Weather alarms which notify users.
of impending severe weather was
also available only to our southern
neighbours. Accuweather.com did
offer a premium user service for
individuals at $40 per year, with
weather reports by e-mail, but the
Canadian availability is questionable
to date.
There was a similar problem with
DTN, www.dtn.com/weather, a
satellite service out of Nebraska
which is to include Canadian data.
The fee-for-service weather
information is broadcast to your
satellite dish and apparently updated
every 15 -minutes.
I quickly discovered that my
lacking in a zip code precluded me
from trying the seven-day free trial.
So much for including Canadians.
However, if I were traveling south, I
could get travel info for $3 a day.
After further frustration, I checked
a site which would definitely be for
those who really want weather data.
Calgary -based Growth Stage Con-
sulting Inc., www.growthstage.com,
offers agriculturally -focused inform-
ation related to crop and weed
development.
With the input of farm location
and other relevant data, Growth Stage
will compile reports which indicate
crop or weed stages on a specific
date. This can be used for the
determination of planting, spraying
and harvest timing.
Temperature and precipitation data
for a 21 -day period can help farmers
calculate the impact of weather
conditions on the effectiveness of an
application as well as with relation to
crop maturity and environmental
stresses.
The Field Tracker system allows
the system to store user information
for quicker reports and alerts by e-
mail. The Crop Management System
alerts users to predicted frosts, excess-
ive heat, heavy rainfall forecasts and
upcoming weed emergence. The
special introductory cost for Growth
Stage is just $250 per year, a substan-
tial savings from the regular $1,500.
I'd like to hear from anyone who
is a client of an online weather service
to hear your thoughts on its usefulness.
Contact me at jlbecker@wightman.ca
or through The Rural Voice office.0
Janice Becker is a computer
enthusiast and journalist living near
Walton, ON.