Heat Stress In Your Cattle Herd

Whether your cattle are just for your family or part of a larger business, you want to do everything possible to ensure their health and comfort.

Doing so will provide higher quality milk, greater quantities, and overall better experiences with your cows. However, any heat stress dairy cows experience can put a real damper on your plans and your farm’s profitability. It is essential that you learn how to deal with it early on!

What Heat Stress In Cattle Feels Like

Just as the heat of summer can feel oppressive to humans, cows, and other animals can experience side effects from the changing seasons. While wintertime has problems of its own, the heat stress dairy cows experience during the summer is a concerning event that should not be taken lightly.

This condition occurs when the animal is no longer able to cool its body on its own. Four separate factors contribute to the comfort of your animals, including the temperature of the air.

It is important to recognize that three additional factors are involved, so even if the temperatures are moderate, your cattle could still be at risk for heat stress.

Heat Stress Management Tools Can Be Used

Now If you are in tune with your cattle herd, you are very aware of the fact that you want nothing to do with having any heat stress problems with any of your cows. So how do you manage these conditions?

The best way to do that today is to use some scientific handheld weather meter tools that will through sensors you have set up, help you to know weather conditions that aren’t good for your cattle.

A great example of one of these tools would be my suggestion of purchasing a Kestrel Data Logger to Monitor Heat Stress in Your Cows.

This is a weather meter that is called the Kestrel Drop. This unit is highly successful with monitoring cattle herds properly for you. The alerts you can set up alert you to temperature changes, humidity changes and you also will know what little air movement there is in the area of your sensor locations.

To continue on with all of the signs that you need to be aware of to do your best with the cattle heat stress situation with your cows.

If the Humidity Is Bad

The second influencing factor is humidity. As it increases, so do the risk factors for your cows. If you notice that your cows are panting, you are seeing signs of heat stress already. To help alleviate this discomfort, take advantage of the third factor: air movement.

If the animals are stuck inside a barn, the still air can contribute to their ill reactions to heat. Lastly, solar radiation due to poor sheltering options during the day can exacerbate their symptoms and health.

The heat stress dairy cows experience can result in lower milk production. Some animals make a gallon less per day when experiencing prolonged heat stress. This loss in production could be very bad, if not crippling to most dairy farmers.

The lengthening of lactations also contributes to decreasing infertility. This isn’t very appealing either, since you will be wanting to breed the cow to keep the calving program growing for your farm. These factors can wreak havoc on your plans!

How Very Important Managing the Heat Is

You must manage the heat in order to protect your cattle from these troubling problems.  To start with you need to increase higher quality forages during heat stress events.

These are more digestible, which can help animals already experiencing greater stress. however, you need to make sure that you still supply a sufficient amount of fiber fermentation for optimal health.

You will need to learn more about how your breed responds best to the local climate changes and employ those ratios. Holsteins respond differently than Jerseys, and Guernsey’s are different again.

Water Plays a Vital Part in Good Management

Always make sure that your animals have sufficient water. The water has a dual purpose. First, it helps to prevent dehydration; secondly, it acts as an internal cooling agent.

Make sure that each head has at least 25 gallons per day. You should provide water immediately after milking to improve production and health.

You can also use water sprinklers and industrial fans to help keep the animals cool down. As the water evaporates from their skin, it will help to cool the external temperature and provide them some relief from the blistering heat.

Since cows cannot sweat, this process helps to simulate the act for them.
In conjunction with other relief efforts, you should be able to keep your cattle healthy and happy during the stressful months of summer.

Cramped Quarters Don’t Help Anyone

Don’t forget about providing enough room for your cattle to move freely. Your pens should have enough room that the animals can move and that gentle breezes will waft between them.

Provide a barn or other shelter that the animals can enter when the heat of the sun bearing down becomes too great. Again, make sure that enough room exists for every animal to comfortably fit.

Another way to reduce the stress associated with the summer is to care for the animals early in the morning. When you have to move, dehorn and vaccinate your animals, make your plans before the sun.

By tending to the care and management needs of your cattle when the weather is the coolest, you will reduce the amount of stress they experience during these essential activities.

No matter what the size of your herd, taking good care of your dairy cows will improve the quality and quantity of milk that your animals produce each day.

By keeping these suggestions in mind you should be able to stave off the worst of the heat and keep your animals cool!

How The Summer Weather Affects Dairy Cattle

Current climate conditions do affect animals as well as people. As a dairy farmer, it is very important for you to have a plan for your dairy cattle stress management.

How and when you have a plan, the sooner you can address the symptoms and as well the sooner your cattle can get comfortable and get back to producing milk properly.

Livestock heat stress can cause serious health issues in your valuable livestock as well as reduced dairy and herd productivity.

Dairy Cattle Stress Management Suggestions

To make sure you are doing your best, offer them fresh water at all times and make sure they have extra during the summer when their body fluids are leaving them quicker. Using a stress management tool such as a Kestrel Data Logger can help you in knowing when you have condition changes that will be a problem for you.

Say, for example, the water’s temperature throughout the day has increased in tandem with the outside temperatures and is too warm for the cow’s body. This will affect the cow’s milk production, so you don’t want that happening.

An alert setup on the Kestrel data logger will alert you to these changes.

How About a Sprinkler System

Setting up sprinkler systems over the feeding areas can also help reduce heat stress in your cows. If you have a large operation, you will need to address this issue and install them so that the entire population of cattle can receive relief from the sprinklers.

Watch how the cattle react to high temperatures. The alerts from the data logger will alert you to climbing danger situations.

Install Barn Fans

You may want to install barn fans so that air will move consistently through the open sides of the building. Some barns are made of concrete so opening the lower level of the barn is not possible. In these cases add the fans above the cattle and this will help resolve the matter.

Special Sheet Metal Structure Suggestions

For barns with sheet metal walls, remove the sides of the metal and install netting in place of the metal. This netting can be lifted to improve airflow during the summer and you can easily lower it during the winter.

Another option is to add or increase the ventilation in the roof. When cattle are outside, be sure that they have ample places to shade themselves.

Here’s Some Information on the Kestrel Drop

Use a Kestrel Data Logger to Monitor Heat Stress in Your Cows

Kestrel manufactures a small monitor device (the Kestrel Drop) which works very well for giving you many different weather-related readings that are very useful in managing the heat stress in your cows.

This monitor is a data logger that measures traditional weather parameters of ambient temperature, relative humidity, heat stress index, dew point temperature, as well as Temperature-Humidity Index (THI), a livestock-specific heat stress calculation. 

The Kestrel DROP allows users to customize logging rates, connections, and alerts. 

Check Out This Amazing Feature

Another great feature is that it is dust and waterproof which is absolutely necessary to be able to continually work in harsh farming conditions.

You will be informed of heat conditions in the barn, during transport, or anywhere livestock is housed. This is also well used in heat stress feedlot cattle management.

Large beef cattle farms today will be using large fenced-in acreage to just feed the cattle each day.

The problem today is that the cattle are kept for days during the nice weather season in these feedlot conditions, so without a heat stress monitor, you wouldn’t know when to move the cattle to a cooler spot.

Managing Heat Stress Levels in Cows with Diet

Kestrel 5400AG Cattle Heat Stress TrackerOther methods for increasing the nutrients the cows get to improve their condition include feeding them more grain, fats, and high-quality forage.

Do not forget that when they perspire and pant they lose a lot of water. While drinking water helps replenish moisture, it cannot replace essential minerals.

These can be dealt with by increasing potassium levels in the dry food. You will want to increase sodium and magnesium levels slightly.

Cows may experience a decline in rumination when their forage is of high quality. As long as you add buffers, this should correct the problem.

To an agricultural person, this is what is meant by buffers. Buffers are compounds which in aqueous(a water) solution help resist changes in rumen pH when high grain, low forage

proper buffers will maintain pH balance and better, more consistent milk production.

The latest developments are focusing on making use of genetics to breed cows that are more resistant to heat.

Already some cattle are more capable of experiencing less heat stress. Genetic studies could make breeding the cows with better tolerance with other cows more common, resulting in animals that are naturally resistant to heat stress.

Weather Readings Affect Feeding Rates

When the weather is hot and humid, always increase the number of feedings. Try feeding them early in the morning or later on at night so that they can eat when temperatures are likely to be more comfortable and will lead to less feed heating which causes spoilage. This also keeps flies to a minimum.

Keep observing the cows as needed to adjust feedings and make any changes to the barn to facilitate cooling. For specialized help, consult with your feed consultant but following the above tips should help your dairy cattle stress management.

As you can see the heat stress in cows can be made a controllable situation using the proper plan. The plan would include dietary planning and heat management plans for watching and changing where your cattle are currently residing.

If it is in a barn situation have one plan. If it is a heat stress feedlot cattle situation have a plan for that.

Move them to a shaded pasture area possible, but don’t just keep them in an open feedlot. The heat stress in the cow feedlot must be maintained, to ensure normal steady milk production from your cows.

So use the tools that are available to help you out. Continue your farming activities but still be alerted to the changes that are happening from minute to minute and hour to hour.

Where Do We Find Wind Chimes

Wind chimes or wind catchers are typically found in verandas, though not often. They are usually used as large window accents or included to add elegance to your kitchen space.

Your chimes are also placed outdoors so that hearing a soothing sound while relaxing in your garden will calm your nerves and discharge stress built up over one’s workweek.

Some sailors are known to utilize chimes to predict the weather and others hang them in their house to bring good luck. Very interesting I would say.

A Closer Look At The Types Of Material to Make Chimes

There are many different types of wind chimes on the market using different materials. Many different sizes everything from small wind catchers to large tube wind chimes can be found.

They can be made from metal, wood, glass, shell, bamboo, stone, stoneware, earthenware, and porcelain.

The materials selected can have a large effect on the sound your wind chime produces. 

Also, it should be noted that the sounds generated by the different sizes of the tubes of a wind chime are tunable to different notes.

Just like any other musical instrument, chimes can also be tuned.

Since aluminum has the lowest damping internally among the most standard metal, aluminum wind chimes are frequently made to achieve the loudest and longest-sounding chime.

Good Luck Anyone

Some large tube wind chimes are specially made to bring good luck to your front yard and porch area. You may have noticed the calming effect (usually a deep feeling of serenity) when you listen to a set of extra large and gigantic wind chimes.

The cooling effect may be because the sound emitted from those big tubes is so deep, low, and resonating. Also, according to Feng Shui, those big tubes can be hung in your property in a particular direction to attract good energy and repel unwanted ones.

The good luck brought about by wind chimes was popularly known in the East, particularly in China. Some believe that a universal flow of energy surrounds us. The Chinese call it Chi.

According to this belief, wind chimes are the most powerful cure and enhancer of different situations and have been practiced for centuries.

The sound emitted from chimes is used to clear and clean negative energies. Your chimes then are placed in specific designations to attract money or accumulate wealth.

Do Chimes Promote Wealth

Here are just simple ideas on wind chimes placement in your house to promote wealth.

One of the easiest and most efficient ways to attract money is to hang your wind chime near your home’s entrance.

The furthest back in the left corner of your property as you stand looking from the outside is known as your primary wealth place. Hanging your large tube wind chimes in this designated area is said to attract money at home.

Your main living room is also a wealthy area. Place your chimes at the entrance of your main living room at the most immediate left upper corner.

Avoid hanging a chime directly above where you sit, sleep, work, eat, or stand. Doing so is said to suppress your energy.

Do You Believe That A Tube Count Makes This Difference

The number of tubes of your chimes also produces different results. Five tubes promote wealth. Six tubes represent heavenly luck while eight tubes represent prosperity blessings, it is the most desired number by the Chinese.

As a rule of thumb, five tubes are best used to suppress bad chi, while six and eight are best used to attract good luck.

Refrain from hanging metal chimes in trees. Wood chimes are better suited for that. Also, hanging your chimes in an area where you are facing two doors in a straight line is not advised.

A Reasonable Purpose

The type of material used for your wind chimes is also a great factor used in attracting good energy and suppressing bad Chi. Metallic chimes are said to have a desirable effect when placed in the north, northwest, and western parts.

Wooden or bamboo-made chimes should be hung in the south, southeast, or eastern direction while ceramic or glass can be placed in northeast and southwest areas.

You may purchase your wind chimes for purely decorative purposes. Or the reason may be to have a soothing and relaxing effect on your nerves while resting on your porch. Or even placing them in specific areas in your home to bring good luck.

You also may even purchase your chimes just because you like listening to its tinkling sound. Ultimately, purchasing and placing your chimes at various locations of your home is ultimately up to you.

Wind Chimes For You

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Woodstock Medium Amazing Grace Chime- Inspirational Collection

Wind chimes are called wind catchers and even sometimes door decoratives.

These are just some of the names for your favorite decorative arrangement that is usually placed on your doors and windows.

These chimes can vary in size and are made from such things as small pieces of glass, shells, bamboo pipes, bells, or ceramic fragments, and they all make tinkling sounds according to the breeze that blows through them.

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A Little History

Before they became a fashionable home decoration, historically, they were one of the first musical instruments in recorded history.

Through the transition of time, wind chimes have been modernized, not only producing their basic tinkling sound but enhanced with specific music to soothe and boost their melodic sound.

Today, the most popular choice is the wind chimes’ amazing grace. This specific windcatcher is tuned after the opening music of America’s most widely known and best-loved hymn, Amazing Grace.

Amazing Grace Wind Chimes Creator

The Amazing Grace Wind Chimes has been developed by the Grammy award-winning musician Garry Kvistad. Garry won the Grammy Award as one of 18 musicians to win the award for the 1998 recording of Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians.

He has taken John Newton’s penned the lyrics of the hymn in the 18th century and used the music as an amazingly soothing song the chimes play when activated by the wind.

John Newton was a young Englishman slave trader who was transformed into a man of conviction when caught in a savage storm aboard his merchant ship.

Amazing Grace the song has stood the test of time, playing an important role in alcohol and drug recovery, the Civil Warfare, the Civil Rights Act, and recently the aftermath of the 9/11 bombings in 2001.

Amazing Grace is Beloved

While many people love the melodic and calming effect of their wind chime’s amazing grace, some have concerns as to maintaining, cleaning, and deciding where to place them.

Here are some easy suggestions for you.
Some wind chimes hang from a stringed loop; others have hangings rings. No matter the type, you should hang your wind chime directly from the loop or ring at the top of the product.

Further directions: use an S-hook and connect one end to the loop/ring and the other point to your door, window, a tree, or other structure.

Avoid adding a string or chain when hanging your chime which can cause excessive swinging and affect the sound emitted.

Best Places To Hang Wind Chimes

• Your wind chime can be placed at different heights. Higher elevation increases wind velocity so you can readily hear wind chime music.
• The ideal place for hanging your chime is where the wind can blow it from many directions. You can place your chime in an open corner if you are decorating from a building.
• Hang your chime beyond two feet of a door or a wall or too close to furniture, plants, and anything that might divert or obstruct the breeze. A screened-in porch can even impede the breeze, preventing your chime from ringing, so avoid hanging closer to the screen.
• You can experiment with different music in some wind chimes to create an aura of sound on your own. You can also try hanging your chime during different seasons in various locations. The prevailing winds can change in every season.

Care Tips For Wind Chimes

• Since wind chimes are usually hung outside, rust can readily form. You can use the anti-corrosive spray to treat rust in your chimes. Sprinkle a small amount on the rusted area and let it sit for five to nine minutes. The solution will then loosen the rust, wipe it off with a soft rug after that.
• To extend the life of the chimes, bring them indoors during periods of non-use, extended vacations, or winter months. You can also coat your chime with a small layer of an alloy that is rustproof.
• Avoid hanging your chime in an area where exposure to direct sunlight is long-term.
• Periodically wipe your chime with a damp cloth soaked with a mild detergent or a non-abrasive, foaming cleanser.
• For the wooden parts of your chime, occasionally apply a small layer of lemon oil with a soft cloth. Regular application will help in protecting and impeding the wood’s natural aging process.
• For the glass, cloisonne-style, ceramic, stone, and stainless steel accents, cleaning these parts using a damp cloth is advised. Mild soap can also be used, if necessary.
• A brass cleaner can be used for the brass parts while a spray window cleaner for the crystal suncatchers or any products with crystal accents.

For More Caring Information

If you would like you may go to the wind chimes original manufacturing company’s website to learn how to clean or keep clean the original Amazing Grace Wind Chime that you are interested in purchasing or that you feel you need to protect. Amazing Grace Wind Chime Caring Guide click here now

You can purchase your wind chimes amazing grace in three sizes (small, medium, and large) depending on the area where you will place them. The small size range from $30 to $40, the medium from $40 to $60, and the large size ranging from $60 to $70

Weather Stations Can Be Used For Better Gardens

When one thinks of a garden, they see a fresh, green-filled garden with many different types of vegetables, growing and flourishing.

You are looking at and savoring the great fresh vegetable taste, you will be experiencing. The expectation is to harvest some of the vegetables and eat them.

But the mystery is how to get to that point with your garden. It isn’t good luck that successful growers possess, it is know-how and work.

You can use the instrument metrics from your weather station to help you get there.

You can look forward to mouth-watering vegetables that you picked from your own garden. You will also be saving much money on your food budget.

How Do You Use Weather Measurements?

To determine how to best use weather readings, you probably should first determine which readings will be important to you. This will be important in helping you to produce a garden full of wonderful fresh produce ready to be consumed by you and your family.

So the best instrument readings for this will be, temperature readings, rainfall amounts, barometric pressure, wind direction & speed, as well as relative humidity. There are other readings that may be gathered and used from instruments such as moisture content, wind chill factor, and dew point.

The instruments used to gather these readings are a thermometer, anemometer, barometer, and pyranometer. A pyranometer is one of the instruments that aren’t ordinarily found on regular consumer-purchased weather stations.

It is usually only available on advanced scientific climate instrument stations. These advanced stations are exceedingly more expensive than the standard weather stations. The scientific stations are in the neighborhood of $4000-$6000 for the most part. Regular, really good weather stations are usually purchased in the $500-$1500 range.

What Is A Pyranometer?

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Ambient Weather TM-206 Solar Power Meter (Pyranometer)

A pyranometer is a form of an actinometer. I know, what is an actinometer?

What is a Pyranometer? Well, let’s get to the bare bones of what we are talking about here. We are talking about measuring the effects of the sun’s rays in an area.

This measurement is done by the sun’s rays, activating a chemical reaction in the measuring tool to see how effective the sun’s photons are actually working to help out plant growth in an area you are measuring.

Let’s look at an example. You have a small garden on the north side of your property. It really isn’t shaded at all, but you are concerned about how effective the sun will be in growing plants in a garden there. So you measure the sun using a pyranometer.

What you find out is that an area on the south side of your property actually rates as a better garden spot than the plot on the north side. It is close, but the pyranometer shows the south side plot is better for more effective plant growth.

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Using The Readings From Your Personal Weather Station

Any advantage you can get as a gardener makes you a much happier gardener. Learning to effectively use scientific data to your advantage is your goal. Why do all the hard work, if you aren’t going to grow a great harvest of plentiful vegetables?

Let’s look at some things that are very important to maintain great plant growth. One of the first things is to maintain a good amount of water for growth but not too much water.

Too much moisture in the soil can result in stunted growth and can actually be bad enough that you can suffocate the root system of the plants and kill them.

What About The Rainfall?

Watching your rainfall by using your weather station can be a very invaluable source of this information. You will know when it rains and how much it rains. Knowing when the rain is falling can help you with preparing your plants for the rainfall.

You can make sure the soil around the roots is aerated well by loosening up the dirt enough around the roots to cause the water to be close to the roots but not pocketing enough to not allow the roots to get the necessary oxygen from the soil close to the roots. This will allow continued plant growth.

The Facts Show This

Scientific facts back up my statements. One of the most common reasons for the suppression of plant growth during very wet periods is the reduction of oxygen in the soil that is available to plant roots. Plant cells respire and need oxygen to survive and grow.

You will need to be concerned if the soil air drops to less than 12% oxygen. At that level roots will suffocate and die. Some things to watch for are, oxygen in the air in the soil forces out soil air. Also when there is less air available, the oxygen is rapidly used and becomes inadequate for good root growth.

In very wet soils, organic matter begins to decompose and this process will also further deplete oxygen in the soil area. So as you can see, how much water, where is the water, and proper care of the soil in your garden, does make a large difference to a successful gardener.

So in the big picture having a station in your garden area will allow you to measure the rainfall in your garden. The station’s rain gauge will be very useful for this.

Watering Your Plants

Watering habits vary widely from one gardener to the next. As an example, one group tends to get very busy with their lives and they end up forgetting about the plants. The plants often wilt and often don’t get the water quickly enough to save them.

Whereas the second group of gardeners tends to pamper their plants. They then have a tendency to water their plants too much. They often come close to killing their plants by drowning them.

With either of these extremes, you can stress your plants to the point that you will end up weakening your plants. Our experience tells us these weakened plants are the first to fall prey to bugs and diseases. Most importantly they also will produce fewer blooms or vegetables.

Watering seems simple but actually takes a little finesse to do properly. Start by identifying your soil type and measuring the actual amount of water your plants receive.

“Vegetables need an inch of water per week delivered by either rainfall or irrigation. This converts roughly to six gallons per square yard per week,” said Robert Polomski, Clemson Extension Horticulturist at Clemson University, in a report out of Clemson’s Agriculture Dept recently.

It has been found that thoroughly soaking the soil with infrequent watering is better than shallow regular watering. Experience also shows that a deep soaking will encourage the plant roots to reach deep into the soil.

It is also known that shallow watering will keep roots close to the surface, and this will cause the plants to be more susceptible to drought.

Sunshine Anyone?

Very important when tending a garden is that you have the necessary sunshine to grow the plants you have planted. It is very important that are able to keep track of how much sun and just how much good weather you have been having so that you can make sure you are on schedule with bringing your garden along.

You need to make sure your plants are maturing at the pace they need to be so that they will be producing the crop for consumption you have planned out. Always remember that your growing season is on a set schedule.

You do know approximately the length of your season and when you will need the crop harvested before the frost hits. So use the daily temperature data and keep track of the good elements days so that you know you are on schedule. Your station with the software provided will be able to give you this record.

Another thing a station will provide you with is the current wind speed, the top wind gusts in the last 12 hour period, and whether or not the wind speed is trending upward or downward. In looking at the anemometers provided the information you will be able to analyze where you are at with how moist or dry your garden is currently.

The longer the wind is blowing, the more dried out your garden will be. With this information, you will be better prepared to know when it is time to be watering your garden.

Remember, a garden that is too wet is prone to be killing off the plants, and a garden too dry will mean your vegetables will not be growing up to their potential.

Adding on or buying a newer, better-equipped station would be two ways to improve your gardening experience. Adding extra instruments and displays to your selection of tools would be a wise move.

With your added repertoire of tools, you will have more information to analyze, and then more timely work to be done, to maximize your vegetable’s growth.

In Summation

So looking at the much larger picture, when you are taking a view of the garden and using an instrument station, it is seen very easily, that the most important things you need to be concerned with are sunlight, rain, wind, and the growing season information.

Weather stations do provide readings for all of these areas. You just need to use the information. Let the information work for you. Data logging can be a very helpful thing.

If your unit does have software, this will help you out tremendously. Applying your knowledge of the vegetables you are growing, the station’s daily readings, along using proper weeding, and watering techniques will help your garden flourish.

You can check up on more sophisticated element station collection units to find even more complicated methods to use for even better gardens. More instruments, more information, and much better yielding gardens.

Read More About Gardening & Farming With Weather Stations-View Related Posts Below

Farming with Weather

Farming today is a big risk, big rewards type of business. Farms are very expensive to run and high-yielding in profit in good crop years.

One key to being successful with your crop yield is to analyze everything from seed crop data to pesticide application, to soil conditions and our favorite subject, using a weather station to study what nature’s elements are doing daily.

Farming 40-50 years ago was much different than it is today. Agriculture used to be thousands of 100-500 acre farms spread throughout the United States.

This size of the farm cannot successfully exist today, simply because you could never create enough income from it to afford to keep it running.

The farms today that can make money for their owners are probably at least 1000 acres. Most are probably 3 to 10 times larger than this.

Crop Failure Causes

The biggest reason farms fail is usually weather-related crop failure. Sometimes this failure is not that crops aren’t produced, but that not enough of a yield was produced to overcome the high costs.

One way to increase crop yields is to apply every available modern-day data stream to help you understand the truth about what is happening.

This data stream would be of weather data coming from weather stations you may have set up on your farm property.

They would need to be set up by weather station installation on your farm. I have written a couple of suggested reads on weather station installation.

What’s Involved in Weather Station Mounting

Top Weather Station Mounting Ideas

Then you can apply a good sound decision to what is happening. Using a weather station (or a series of weather stations) could be very beneficial to a farm.

A very close to the perfect professional-level weather station is the Davis Instruments 6152 Vantage Pro2. You should take a look at it here.

Davis Instruments 6152 Vantage Pro2 Wireless Weather Station

The Davis Instruments 6152 Vantage Pro2 is a professional-level wireless weather station.

If you are a farmer you will find this weather station ensemble has many top features that you would find necessary to help you gather weather information for farm operations.

This model features the following sensors.

• wind speed sensor
• wind direction sensor
• Rain Collector Type . . .Tipping bucket.
• a Temperature Sensor
• PN Junction Silicon Diode Relative Humidity Sensor

As a farmer you need to raise your crop production/yield and if you are raising animals you will want to be receiving, outside temperature readings, because they can alert you to temperatures that could cause animal stress levels. These stress levels could mean a drop in milk production as well as a poorer cut of beef from a beef cattle breed.

This Davis Instruments console can keep track of relative humidity readings which are used in many facets of farming.

It is also very important in the harvesting of hay and crop harvesting. In these harvesting methods you need to know when the fields are dry enough to bring the crop in for winter storage.

Reasons Discussed Why Farmers Use Weather Station Data

When looking at data supplied by a Davis Instruments weather station, not all data is the same. The uses of information are manyfold.

They are dependent upon the profession using and needing the weather information.

The information supplied by a station, that is most needed is temperature, wind speed, barometric pressure, rainfall measurements, and recorded rainfall amounts.

Also, the relative humidity is very important as is the upcoming weather forecast. Working with the forecast is by far the best way to manage your farm work.

Let’s now go over using weather station data. We will cover various categories that are all very important to different types of farmers due to different types of conditions for their farming.

Commercial Agriculture Crops

One very important thing to note is that with commercial agriculture crops, we are talking about huge tracks of land that are in production to grow millions and millions of bushels of crops.

Many of these crops are grown in the midwestern states. States such as Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana.

These states are huge in growing commercial agriculture crops such as corn, wheat, and soybeans. These crops are mainstays in the worldwide diets of 2019.

Thus their failure or even threat of a failure is tantamount to maintaining food supplies in the United States. This is in addition to the vast amount of food that is exported to other nations around the world.

With all of this in mind, many of these farmers are looking to incorporate the use of professional weather stations throughout their farms to monitor weather data changes so that all or some of the following weather readings could make a huge difference to them.

Many of these farmers today are using small handheld weather meters to collect weather data and send the results to their cell phones.

This is done while in the middle of a very large farm operation, maybe even in the middle of a field or a corral.

These signal warnings allow the farmers to quickly respond to these weather meter readings.

Yes, I want to take a look NOW! at ONE OF THESE HANDHELD WEATHER METERS

KESTREL 5500 POCKET WEATHER METER – TAN G_MRPX

The Kestrel 5500 Environmental Meter is a complete handheld weather station.

Within the small inner workings, it is very powerful and can provide all of the following readings to you.

• Altitude (Barometric)
• Barometric Pressure
• Compass Direction
• Crosswind
• Density Altitude
• Dewpoint Temp
• Headwind / Tailwind
• Heat Stress Index
• Relative Humidity
• Station Pressure (Absolute Pressure)
• Temperature
• Wet Bulb Temperature (Psychrometric)
• Wind Chill
• Wind Speed/Air Speed

With these readings provided to you, you can control your production much better on your farm.

The Kestrel units are small and adaptable to your needs. They can be set up at a distant paddock of horses or beef cattle or dairy cows to monitor cattle heat stress. Or on the corner post of a fenced pasture.

They could also be set up in an area of your large ranch which is the first area that receives weather changes when they happen. Use the unit as a weather alert unit, and keep the unit in your barns and in your vehicles (pickups or cars, etc).

Temperature Data

In farming, most of the emphasis in this data area is looked at through the lens of just how devastating a frost could be to your crops.

A station will have a temperature change alert on it that you can set. This alert will serve the purpose of letting you know when the temperature is dipping down to near frost levels.

This then would allow you to respond by setting up anti-frost measures in your harvest areas to protect your crops. Some of these anti-frost methods could be covering, fog or smoke clouds, a light sprinkling of water, and the usage of wind machines.

Protect Plants Against Freezing

A. Covering

• This method reduces heat loss from the surface. This is often used by home gardeners and the growers of low-growing commercial crops that use smaller acreage lots.
• They use materials such as straw mulch, boxes, tar paper, plastic, etc. to reduce the heat loss from the surface. Often the costs of these materials prohibit this method.

• The storage, the time, and the labor needed to place the covers are the main drawbacks to this method for large areas of crops.
• Some materials are more effective in reducing radiative heat loss than others. Any cover is effective in reducing heat loss by convection. When covers are placed, particularly thin materials such as plastics, care must be taken to prevent contact with the plant to reduce heat loss by conduction.
• You need to remember the temperature of the exposed surface is usually lower than the air below it. Straw mulches should cover all plant parts as any protruding leaves are more susceptible to freeze damage.
• Covers should always be removed during the day, as the plants need to breathe, and the warmer day temperatures will cause condensation around the plants, and heavy dampness which will lead to an increased risk of plant diseases forming.

B. Using Fog or Smoke Clouds

• This method is well known for its active ability to reduce radiative heat loss from the ground. Often smoke from smudge pots is used to smoke out or fog the area with a warm protective air covering.

• Some people have used mist from fine water nozzles, and another favorite is to burn petroleum-based tires. These will also serve to keep the earth’s warmth from escaping thus lowering the risk of frost-bitten plants.
• One bad part of discussing the smudge pots and burning tires is that very often this goes broadly against local environmental laws for air pollution.

C. Sprinkling of Water

• A third method to discuss is sprinkling a low application of water in the air. This is done by using an irrigation system and sprinkling a light mist of water over all your crop.
• This has scientifically been proven to be effective in protecting lower-to-the-ground crops from frost. This is especially effective when vast temperature differences are present between the ground temperature and the temperature say 10-20 feet above the ground. Effectiveness varies in the range of 1 to 4 degrees C.

• Please note that this method must be started well before the onset of freezing temperatures and must be maintained for an extended period after the threat has subsided.

D. Wind Machines

• Another popular system used is the use of wind machines. This is most effective during freezes which occur on calm, clear nights. On those nights the air layer near the ground is colder than the air aloft.
• This is known as a temperature inversion. Wind machines or helicopters are sometimes used to bring the warmer air down to the crop level to replace the cold air layer at the surface.
• Equipment and operating costs are high for this system, but this can also be the one most effective method to use, but your budget must match up with the benefit you are producing.

Wind Speed & Direction

The first thing that comes to mind with wind direction is how very important it is to observe wind conditions(speed and direction) prior to spraying any crops with chemicals.

Spraying is a very expensive part of managing your crop’s overall health. Insects and pests must be sprayed for. This will increase the volume of the harvest by not losing yields due to any damage from blights, eating of crops, and either malformation of the fruit/yield or the physical appearance of the crop.

The marketability must be maintained. The integrity of the crop that you are selling must be top-grade. The top-grade quality will always bring the highest price for the crop.

A. Wind and Crop Damage

Wind speed is very important as well. If you have a wind storm or predicted strong wind gusts, you need to know. Strong winds often cause crops to break and lay down. Often they will not harvest properly if they are laying down (versus) standing up.

B. Drying Conditions

Knowing the drying conditions of the day or the next few days is very important to a farmer as well. Let’s say you have three hay fields, to cut, to condition, to bale, and to haul into the mow.

Maybe you will not even start the haying operation if you do not have enough time to get the bales into the barn before it rains for a couple of days.

Wet bales can easily become moldy. Moldy hay will not be eaten, nor can it be used in the feed grinding process.

This will then cause extra work to roll the bales over, to ensure the bale is dried out on all sides. If the farm needs to bring in the bales of hay or straw from the field, they will need to know if someone should be sent out to roll the bales over to let the bottoms dry out.

It is very important to only pick up and mow away only dry bales. Bales of straw or hay that are still damp can cause a great heat up(self-combustion may occur) in the mow, and many barn fires have happened in the past.

These fires often totally destroy the barns as well as the stored crops, the cattle, and farm equipment as well.

The Forecast

The upcoming elements forecast is what I would consider the second most important thing an instrument station can give me if I’m a farmer. As I mentioned in my article on gardening and weather stations, the same goes for farming.

A farmer is always at the mercy of the outside elements. He will be allowed x number of hours to bring in crops before it rains, as an example. Or he may have two hundred acres of grain to harvest yet, but in three days, it is going to start snowing. He must maximize his harvest time, to bring in as much of the grain crop as possible.

The weather forecast and present instrument elements data will allow him to figure out the best use of his daylight working hours. It will allow him the best use of the dark hours as well. So as you can see the weather information is needed by any farmer, that way he is not shooting blind.

Summation

The farmer’s respect for and knowledge of the weather is vital to his survival. If he misreads or fails to act properly in any climate situation he will pay dearly for that bad decision.

The farmer has many huge expenses today in his business. Equipment is very high in cost. Building maintenance is costly. Fertilizer is expensive as well. The cost of the best seeds (for top-yielding crops) is expensive as well.

Animal feed, gas for equipment, and the cost of labor are high as well. So with this in mind why would a farmer not be willing to invest in top-of-the-line weather stations, displays, and weather equipment?

The stations should also collect and store data as well. This is the age of highly educated analyzing farmers. So the use of computers, the analysis of data, and high-level planning are keys to successful farming.

So let a highly rated weather station do its thing for you.