Davis Vantage Pro2 Weather Station at Yattendon Estate
Peter King is the Arable Farm Manager at Yattendon Estate in Berkshire. The estate has practiced “responsible English farming at Yattendon since 1925”. Yattendon Estate is the amalgamation of several smaller estates acquired by the first Lord Lliffe which represents a total of nearly 4000 hectares divided between in-hand farms, let farms, woodlands, christmas tree areas, let smallholdings and grazing land. Crops grown on the land include Wheat, Barley, Oil Seed Rape and Forage Maize Amongst the several farms on the estate is Frilsham Home Farm which is home to 550 Holstein-Friesian dairy cattle and 24 British White cattle.
Prior to purchasing their Davis Vantage Pro2 weather station from EnviroMonitors the estate had been keeping rainfall records for the Met Office since 1942. Peter had wanted a weather station for a number of years, seeing the value a robust and accurate system would bring to the farm. He saw the advantage of having the station on the farm giving him site specific readings as opposed to a general localised forecast. Prior to purchasing his Davis Vantage Pro2 Peter researched weather stations online and came across EnviroMonitors. “I got the helpful response I needed first time, so I didn’t look any further having confirmed that the Davis was the instrument for me.”
After looking at other weather stations Peter commented “Davis appeared to me to be sufficiently sophisticated and well made without being ‘silly money’.”
Peter’s requirement for a weather station was that it would be capable of logging temperature, rainfall and wind speed & direction. He also required the logging of soil temperature which is important for the farm during the planting of maize, ideally this needs to be done when soil temperatures are between 8 and 10 degrees. Wind speed is very important as the information logged on Peter’s Vantage Pro2 weather station is used to help in the decision making process for crop spraying.
The rainfall records are used to make judgements on the development of diseases in crops, particularly Septoria in winter wheat. Monitoring night time temperatures in April and May is useful, in combination with rainfall figures, in helping to predict the likely level of germination of Schlerotia, the fungi which can cause large yield losses in oilseed rape by infecting it during flowering. The combination of rainfall and temperature records is also a useful ‘post-mortem’ tool when looking back at the performance of crops once yields are known.
The key factor in choosing the Davis Vantage Pro2 was the wireless function, due to the closed-in nature of the farm site. The temperature, humidity and rainfall sensors are 100 metres in direct line of sight from the office window on a rough grass area outside of the yard area. The soil temperature, soil moisture and leaf wetness sensors are a further 60 metres away on a field edge and the wind speed & direction sensor connect to separate transmitter another 200 metres away on a World War 2 pillbox in the field, away from any influences from buildings.
Upon purchasing the Davis Vantage Pro2 with its soil temperature, soil moisture and leaf wetness sensors Peter found the instructions were very straightforward and easy to follow making it easy to install and use. Although Peter is the only person who uses the weather station on a daily basis, the information stored in the console is also transferred periodically to another computer at the Estate Office.
Peter has found the Davis Vantage Pro2 weather station and its accessories to be “a valuable working tool which is used on a daily basis for making important decisions for planting and crop spraying”.
