Temperature and humidity monitoring for agribusiness
Filed under: environmental monitoring, humidity monitoring, temperature monitoring
When you hear words like farm, agriculture, and greenhouse; you are much more likely to visualize pastoral scenes of rolling hills and grazing livestock than images of computers and network cables. In fact, we often think of farms and greenhouses as the antithesis of the high-tech environment. In reality, the modern commercial farm utilizes many different technologies to assist in farm management. One of the ways that technology and networking can make a farmer’s life much easier is in environmental monitoring.
From greenhouses growing hydroponic tomatoes and lettuce in January to cold storage units that allow the local grocery store to sell Washington apples in the dead of winter; monitoring the temperature and humidity for optimum conditions is crucial for a profitable agribusiness. If it is too cold plant growth is hampered, temperatures that are too hot can wither plants and cause livestock to suffer. Likewise, too little or too much relative humidity can, respectively, increase watering demands and cause disease and fungus issues in both plants and animals. For a small operation, a simple thermometer and humidistat will do the job, however, larger operations producing multiple crops and livestock would benefit from a centralized, web-based environmental monitoring system. According to a 2000 USDA survey, the average commercial farm operates 2,180 acres and has multiple facilities that require specific temperature and humidity thresholds.
A web-based temperature and humidity monitoring system such as the one available with Ravica’s sensor probes are an excellent solution for these large-scale agricultural businesses. In a networked system, a farm manager can install a BitSight2 with two remote single port temperature and humidity sensors in each greenhouse, barn, or storage facility and set the unique thresholds for the optimum conditions. Each of the sensors can be networked to the main computer on the farm and the conditions in each of the facilities can be accessed from a single location. This cuts back on the time needed to manually monitor and log the temperature and humidity in each location. Instead, a warning alert can be sent to an email or cell phone when any condition surpasses a safe threshold and the problem can be rectified before the condition causes problems with plant growth or disease. In addition, the easy-to-use web interface makes it possible for a farm manager to access information on the environmental conditions at the farm from anywhere.
If you need help setting up an environmental monitoring system at your farm or greenhouse, give us a call at (207) 324-8173. We’d love to help you get started.
~JessicaFollow Me on Twitter
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