Some farmers and agricultural industry members across the state are turning to an MSU-operated website for guidance in the fields and on their farms.
Enviro-weather is an MSU website run through partnerships between MSU Extension and MSU AgBioResearch and is partially funded by the Michigan Legislature’s Project GREEEN. The website synthesizes data from different collection sites around the state using basic parameters like temperature, humidity and rainfall. The site then uses that data to provide recommendations to users in terms of proper pesticide application and timing, said Larry Olsen, professor and the associate chair in the Department of Entomology. Olsen serves as one of the site’s co-directors.
The website collects its data from 64 stations and uses different models, including aids related to crop harvest and irrigation, to provide information to agricultural growers and industry members alike.
Olsen said many private consultants start their day by checking the site, in addition to farmers.
“What Enviro-weather offers is more than just the raw information,” said Jeff Andressen, the co-director of Enviro-weather and an associate professor in the Department of Geography. “I think that’s the most significant difference with most weather websites.”
Andressen said the network — which dates back to 1997 — plans to survey farmers to gage the site’s usage but currently estimates that traffic on the site reaches upwards of 10,000 hits on the site’s busiest days, most of which come during the spring.
On average, 300-400 different growers check the site on a daily basis, Andressen said.
With current weather conditions in Michigan, Andressen said most likely there will be a need for the kind of information the website can provide.
Using the site to determine proper pesticide application can save farmers hundreds of dollars in some instances, Andressen said.
Although it is used by numerous growers and industry members across the state, funding for Enviro-weather is an issue, and the program has been subject to cuts in the past.
Despite the loss of funding, new opportunities for the program keep coming up. Recently, the site installed six stations in Wisconsin designed to help cherry growers, and currently a proposal by potato growers to add four stations to the network is under consideration, Olsen said.
“We get additional opportunities to expand the network,” Olsen said. “But, it’s all money-dependent.”
Kristen Henn, a biosystems engineering junior going into her second year of work with the program, said she feels MSU can sustain the website in the face of reduced funding.
“(MSU) has a good program going, and everyone who’s involved in this project is really passionate about it,” she said. “I think they’ll work through adversity if they need to keep it rolling.”
To see the website, visit enviroweather.msu.edu
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