Creating A Simple System To Pinpoint Irrigation Using Crop Temperatures

By Dave Mowitz

Kendall DeJonge’s mission is to take plants’ temperatures.

But the crops, like corn, that he is working with don’t have to open up and say, “ahh.” Instead, DeJonge employs an infrared radiometric thermometer (IRT). This is a simple point-and-detect tool that any farmer could own. The USDA Agriculture Research Service (ARS) engineer, who works out of Colorado, is developing a simple way that farmers can use IRT to pinpoint when a crop needs to be irrigated.

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