Weather Stations Aren't Always Close Enough

Tim Hammerich

News Reporter

Many agricultural technologies want to use weather station data to make decisions about what’s happening on the farm. But that’s not accurate enough, says Arable CEO Jim Ethington. He recalls an experience from years ago when he learned about this variability from some Kansas farmers.

Ethington… “It had been dry. The crop didn't do so well. Payouts weren't the size that the growers were expecting. I went out and visited with those customers and walked to their fields. I saw the size of the ears of corn that were left in the fields, you know, they didn't harvest it, it wasn't worth it. And know compared that to what they'd been paid. And we looked really hard at what it was and the weather data that they were showing for their area wasn't what they experienced. That accuracy of what actually happened in that field, to that crop, during what growth stage, it made all the difference. You know, it was the difference between 120 bushel year and a 50 bushel year.”

That experience inspires Ethington to lead Arable to building products that are easy to install and collect data at the field level.

Ethington… “One of the big premises of Arable and what we're doing is providing really high quality and complete data about what happened in the field. And how did the crop respond?”

Ethington says by making this data accessible and actionable, farmers can use the latest in technology to the fullest.