The irrigation requirements for the remainder of the season can be estimated.
The example above shows a site half-way through the growing season, on 10 January 2005. The thick blue line is the measured soil moisture content, and the upper and lower limit lines are the 'ideal tracking' lines. The grower is trying to stress the grapes using RDI.
The green and red bars in the period up to 10 January are the actual rainfall and applied irrigation amounts.
The grower is now using the software to estimate the water requirements for the remainder of the season, and in this example a low probabilty rain scenario is being used.
The calculation of irrigation requirements allows for...
The predicted amounts are obviously strongly influenced by assumed rainfalls, but the interval between rainfalls can be more important than the amount.
The calculated volumes required can be printed in reports, and are also available in MS Access MDB files.
Output from MS.Access report, showing total farm water requirements (Kl) for three rainfall scenarios.
For full description and notes