Short instructional transcript describing use of a handheld weather meter for monitoring weather during agricultural spray applications. Emphasizes legal requirement to measure conditions at site of application and gives specific measurement heights and recording practices (wind at ~2 m; temperature and relative humidity at ~1.25 m, sensors shaded). Recommends recording wind speed, direction, temperature and humidity regularly and measuring within the crop canopy when deciding on spray continuation.
Chapters
Looking at weather monitoring in the field for when we're spraying. So I've got a handheld weather meter here. This will tell me things like temperature, humidity, wind speed. And when we're recording these things in the paddock, it's a legal requirement to measure those at the site of application. So a portable meter like this is really handy when you. When we're measuring wind speed, that should be done at about two metres in the air. That's the height at which they measure wind speed to judge or calculate the no spray zones or downwind buffers on the label. The other things I need to measure are temperature and relative humidity. They should be done at 1.25 metres. And ideally these little sensors would be shaded, so we don't want to get direct radiation on them. I'd probably turn that away from the sun while I'm doing temperature and humidity. And I need to record those measurements. Wind speed, wind direction, temperature and humidity, generally every load. So at the start of the day, each layer and at the end I need to make a record of them. But if I'm going to make a decision about whether I keep spraying or not, particularly based on temperature and humidity or Delta T, I also want to take a measurement at the target. So I'll take my handheld weather meter and I'll place it down in amongst the weeds or the crop canopy, because if I got soil moisture or the plants aren't stressed, quite often the humidity will be lower down there or the droplet survival will be better. So handheld weather meters are a really useful tool for recording those things out in the paddock. But if I'm going to make a decision about whether I keep spraying as it gets to higher temperatures, I'll measure it down at the.
