Apps / Application / Grass Signal

Grass Signal

Grass Signal helps to monitor grass growth. It predicts the yield and quality of grass for a five-day forecast period. For each plot, it gives an attention for mowing or grazing for a desired yield level or crude protein content. It shows the yield, daily growth, crude protein content, nitrogen uptake, energy content and moisture supply.

Grass growth model

Wageningen Livestock Research (WUR)

Contact: Idse Hoving

E-mail: idse.hoving@wur.nl

Website:

Link to appstore: farmmaps.eu/nl/editor/plan

Price: €250 ex BTW

The application provides a model-based estimate of grass growth based on nitrogen, soil moisture and grassland use. It is an approximation of actual growth. To bring the estimate closer to reality, satellite images and/or grass height measurements are used when they are available. The link with this data is fully automatic and produces a better result than model, satellite or grass height separately. For satellite images, the vegetation index WDVIred is used.

Soil moisture balance

Nitrogen and water are the most important growth parameters for grass. The program calculates the soil moisture condition of the root zone of a crop using the water balance model WATBALsig from Wageningen Environmental Research. The program predicts the soil moisture supply and the groundwater level for each agricultural plot in the Netherlands on the basis of soil, hydrology and crop and is basically the same as IrrigatieAdvies.

The soil texture of the humus topsoil determines the degree of moisture supply of the soil. The soil texture of the subsoil determines the degree of capillary rise of moisture from the subsoil and groundwater. The groundwater level development is characterized by the average highest and lowest groundwater levels (GHG and GLG, respectively). The drainage means ditches, drainpipes and trenches influence the groundwater level and are included in the advice. The degree of seepage or seepage concerns, respectively, the extra moisture supply from the groundwater or the drainage of soil moisture to the subsoil.

 

Both too dry and too wet conditions lead to sub-optimal transpiration, because grass roots cannot absorb enough water.

In order to be able to estimate the value of the daily soil moisture condition, four classes are distinguished in the representation of the soil moisture stock (mm), namely: too wet, sufficient, moisture is limiting, too dry.

Dates

GrasSignaal automatically retrieves input data for soil, hydrology and meteo for entered plots in Farmmaps in order to calculate a soil moisture balance. For soil physics, the BOFEK map is used, which is derived from the 1:50,000 soil map. The fallen precipitation is obtained from location-specific radar data (grid of 2.4 km). Makkink is used for crop evaporation. The digital data also provides data about ditches, drainage pipes, seepage or seepage and the average highest (GHG) and lowest groundwater level (GLG). The presence, depth and resistances of the drainage means are estimated on the basis of map material and can be adjusted in Settings if desired. Ditch levels can also be specified or precipitation data can be adjusted.

Irrigation quantities and nitrogen supply capacity (NLV) must be entered yourself.

Images from left to right: (1) Yield prediction grass growth, (2) Nutrional content of the grass and (3) Soil moisture balance

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