Mesonet Agriculture

Since its beginning, Oklahoma Mesonet has been jointly operated by OSU and OU.  The primary interest of OSU in Mesonet is to provide the farm and ranch community with access to critical real-time weather data, historical weather data, and value-added decision-making tools.

Every five minutes the system’s 120 towers provide agriculture clientèle with temperature, wind, solar radiation, barometric pressure, relative humidity, and rainfall data.  Sensors below ground provide critical soil moisture and soil temperature information.  

At Mesonet, this real-time weather data is incorporated into interactive tools that assist in making on-farm decisions that are based on weather and science and not just on a calendar basis.  For crops, these tools include products for insect and disease management, growing degree days, irrigation scheduling, drought, and pesticide drift control.  For livestock producers, there are tools that deal with cattle comfort, wheat grazing management, and odor dispersion. 

 

Figure 1.  An example of the Stillwater Farm Monitor

 

Figure 2.  An example of the Drift Risk Advisor.

 

 

Figure 3.  An example of the forecast for the warmest cattle comfort index.

Accessing the weather information is free at the Oklahoma Mesonet website.  You can go directly to the agriculture decision making tools.  For more information, please don’t hesitate to contact Oklahoma Mesonet.