Large increase in demand for weather stations

The use of weather stations and automatic rain gauges is no longer an exception, AgroExact sees. With more than four hundred measurement locations, AgroExact owns the largest measurement network in the Netherlands under its own management. "In the run-up to the 2023 growing season, this is expanding every day," says Sven Boogaard, co-founder of AgroExact.

In recent years, AgroExact started with the construction of its own measuring network. "In many areas there is a weather station every 5 to 10 kilometers. These are the distances at which wind, temperature and humidity at a height of 1,5 meters are practically always the same. Yet the demand for additional measuring points remains and is increasing. "The main cause is precipitation: in spring and summer it is increasingly either dry or wet due to heavy and very local showers. People really want local data from that."

AgroExact therefore recently started a campaign: everyone who subscribes to the agricultural weather app receives an automatic rain gauge on loan free of charge. An offer that allows more and more local precipitation differences to be mapped. Boogaard: "Users experience it as great convenience to have insight into the weather conditions, but also on plots located further away. It saves driving rounds along the fields to view the conditions. The first step is to take a look at your phone That saves time and costs considerably less fuel."

The approach of AgroExact also means that the threshold for participation is low. "Every new user benefits immediately by watching relevant weather stations from the measurement network that is already in place. In the current promotion, every new user also gets their own rain gauge on loan. The temperature, humidity and wind are then supplemented from the network. We continuously check the measurements and if something is wrong, we solve it free of charge. That way the measurements remain correct." A user therefore only pays for the use of the app, the measuring stations are provided by AgroExact. "From €195 per year, you always have five weather stations at your disposal, without having to purchase them yourself and without the hassle of checking them yourself."

The good market prices give many new users the opportunity to make smart investments, says Boogaard. "Compared to many investments, starting with AgroExact costs a pittance. Then you can always see whether expansion with more measuring points or sensors is desirable. But we absolutely do not make this mandatory." The AgroExact App can be expanded with own soil and crop sensors. These are placed between the crops for extra precision. The sensors say something specific about a plot, especially when it comes to soil moisture. The precision of this sensor, in combination with the irrigation advice that is linked to it, was assessed by Wageningen University with a 9,2. No solution scored higher.

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