Farmers have all sorts of old-fashioned methods for assessing the moisture of soil. From just visually inspecting crops to judging moisture based on how deeply a shovel can penetrate, farmers have found ways to get by. More recently, several advancements have offered farmers new alternatives to those old-fashioned approaches, including irrigation schedulers and soil moisture sensors. <\/p>\n
Irrigation schedulers rely on estimates of evapotranspiration, or the loss of moisture that land and plants sustain from evaporation and transpiration. Soil moisture sensors offer a more direct measurement of the water that an area of land holds because they tap right into it. <\/p>\n
An article from the Michigan State University Extension discusses some of the benefits that a Michigan farmer has found from using soil moisture sensors. The biggest one is knowing just how much moisture the land is holding at any given time — there\u2019s no guesswork. <\/p>\n
The farmer has a set of soil moisture sensors in each of his fields, one each at depths of 1, 2 and 3 feet. These have recorded measurements over a period of three years and provided a longer-term look at seasonal changes.<\/p>\n
Top image:\u00a0Researchers work to ensure accuracy and uniformity of irrigation. (Credit: Lyndon Kelley \/ MSU Extension)<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Farmers have all sorts of old-fashioned methods for assessing the moisture of soil. From just visually inspecting crops to judging moisture based on how deeply a shovel can penetrate, farmers have found ways to get by. More recently, several advancements have offered farmers new alternatives to those old-fashioned approaches, including irrigation schedulers and soil moisture […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":26083,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,7],"tags":[345,224,103,138],"class_list":["post-26088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-earth-atmosphere","category-news","tag-earth-atmosphere","tag-michigan-state-university","tag-news-2","tag-soil"],"remote_post_permalink":false,"remote_post_featured_image":false,"yoast_head":"\n