Phenology Climate Growing Weather Measure Predictions Yield Projection

II Custom Solutions

Phenology

Planting schedules for produce that match marketing needs – Phenology

How do we match the growing of fruits and vegetables to the selling of produce?

How do we plan our planting schedules to give us an optimal flow of produce for our harvest, packing, shipping and sales?

How do we keep up do date on changes to our production schedules that are caused by weather or climate changes?

The answer is phenology: the study of how climate affects biological systems.

Parts of a phenology system:
1. Accurate historical climate data
  1. Temperature, sunlight, humidity, rainfall, wind, leaf wetness, soil type, elevation, region, etc.
2. Accurate historical records of how climate affects this crop
  1. Measurements per crop and varieties
  2. Measurements to and between specific milestones such as 1st leaf, 1st bud, 1” size fruit, etc.
  3. What interval are we going to measure? Per week, day, hour, minute or second and how do we accumulate and average our measurements in that time frame
3. A desired target production by time period
  1. Define how much production is needed in the target time period
  2. Sales projections based on history, promotions and salesperson experience
4. A system that uses the climate data and crop data to come up with a plan that achieves the desired production
  1. This system will have to be able to weight the impact of each factor (For example if it is warmer but less light, how much will the combined climate affect scheduling)
5. A system to gather live current climate measurements
6. A system to gather reliable climate forecasts
7. A system that combines current climate measurements and reliable forecasts to adjust and display the resulting production expectations
8. A list of possible corrective actions, such as nutrition, irrigation, air flow, etc. that can possibly change the resulting production from the plan
9. A system that informs the user that a corrective action should be taken to bring production back to the target
10. A system that measures the current climate against crop milestones to inspect the quality of our historical data and set better historical data for the future
System platform:

The system should be web based so that the maximum amount of people can interact with it and access it wherever they can receive an internet connection
The system needs to be able to access a large range of different data from many different sources
The system needs to be live so that it is always responding to the most current information
The system needs to be able to process all of this data into a useful action plan

Solution:

RFBII Custom Solutions has the people to accomplish a phenology project. They have used phenology in their own growing operation and have been involved with produce software since 1979.
Key Central is a web and data integration tool for bringing data together from multiple sources and making it available and useful with access from any internet connection.

For more information on a phenology solution for your company please contact us at: 616-447-0138 or office@rfbii.com

Why work with RFBII?

We understand Agriculture

We were grower, packer shippers

We have been programming for Ag for 30 years

We work with Ag software every day

We manage many Ag sites

We are familiar with the business issues you deal with

We know how to make technology work for you