Grower asks the app to break the news in person
LINCOLN, Neb. — A weather app sent a corn grower a cheerful notification Tuesday inviting him to get outside and enjoy another beautiful day. The grower stepped out, walked to the field and held his phone toward a row of corn with leaves curled tight enough to mail.
“Go ahead,” he told it. “Tell them what you told me.”
The app reported sunshine, a breeze and excellent conditions for outdoor plans. The grower’s outdoor plans involved looking for moisture below the surface and deciding which irrigation pass he could afford. He gave the app credit for identifying the general location of the work.
His daughter suggested changing the notification settings. He said he was hoping to change the weather.
Rain Forecasts for Farmers: A Ten Percent Chance of Getting Your Hopes Up
The grower checked three forecasts. One showed a chance of showers Friday. Another offered a chance Saturday. The third put a thunderstorm directly over his field at 3 p.m., then moved it two counties east when he refreshed the screen.
The notification log on his phone, which he scrolled through for a reporter, shows four messages that morning. “Great day ahead!” arrived at 6:02. “Perfect conditions for outdoor activities” followed at 9:15. At 11:40 the app reported “Sunny, 94” and invited him to rate his experience. He did not.
He told his daughter this was the first time he had scared off a storm with his thumb.
A neighbor had driven through rain on the highway the previous evening and called to ask how much the farm got. The grower said the windshield had apparently received more than the quarter section. He had checked the gauge twice anyway, once in daylight and once with a flashlight, on the theory that precipitation might respond to an audit.
The gauge, which he showed to the neighbor, held less than a tenth of an inch. The grower’s notebook shows the same reading in both entries, written in two different pens.
A county extension educator said the conversation changes depending on when the crop runs short of water. Heat and moisture stress around pollination can hurt yield, and an inch in the gauge can matter far more at one point in the season than another. The grower’s banker said a dollar had a similar property and asked whether he had any left.
By late afternoon the grower had irrigated the north corner and walked the south end on foot. The ground under the top inch was cooler and darker than he expected, a small mercy he reported to his daughter in the tone of a man announcing a modest lottery win. “Eleven inches down,” he said, “there’s still a rumor of water.”
He pressed a boot print into the dirt and watched it hold. The app, still in his pocket, sent a notification asking him to rate the weather.
USDA Crop Reports and Drought Monitor: Sunshine Upgraded to a Premium Feature
USDA crop reports track the effects of dry conditions on crops and pasture. The USDA Weekly Weather and Crop Bulletin and Agriculture in Drought reports and the U.S. Drought Monitor can establish what’s happening across a broad area. The farmer still has to walk his ground to decide what he’s going to do with it.
A man who farms across the county road from the grower described standing at the fence line that afternoon with a thermos. “He held the phone up to the corn like he was introducing it to somebody,” the neighbor said. “The corn didn’t say a word. Neither did the phone, after a minute.”
At supper, the family reviewed the irrigation schedule. The grower’s daughter suggested starting with the field where the crop still had the best shot of responding. Her father agreed. They drew up the plan, then checked the radar again in the same spirit people check the refrigerator five minutes after discovering there’s no pie.
The weather app sent a sunset alert. It was correct to the minute.
“I’ll give it that,” the grower said, setting the alarm for the next irrigation check. “When it tells me the sun’s leaving, it actually goes.”
Five Humorous Observations
- The app says “enjoy your beautiful day.” To a farmer in a drought that’s not a forecast. That’s a guy at a funeral telling you the buffet looks great.
- He checked the rain gauge in daylight and then with a flashlight. Nobody’s ever found more water with a flashlight. That’s a search for your keys in the ocean.
- Three forecasts, three different storms. It’s the only business where you can hire three experts and they all lie in different directions.
- The banker said a dollar has the same problem as an inch of rain. Both show up at the wrong time and neither one stays.
- The one thing the app got right was the sunset. Yeah, because that’s the one forecast where nobody can blame the farmer for the outcome.