SOIL MOISTURE SENSING
A 4-foot soil moisture probe is installed in an irrigated cotton field in southwest Oklahoma.
Another type of soil moisture probe is installed in an irrigated cotton field in west-central Oklahoma.
SENSOR MANUFACTURERS HAVE MADE ADVANCEMENTS TO IMPROVE SENSOR ACCURACY AND REDUCE INSTALLATION AND MAINTENANCE COSTS AND EFFORTS.
design to achieve good sensor-soil contact with less time and experience could increase users’ willingness to consider this technology.
Another opportunity for manufacturers is to improve the power requirement and wireless data transfer of soil moisture sensors. More efficient batteries reduce or eliminate the need to replace batteries frequently or to add solar panels to
recharge batteries. More compact and less rigid antennae for data transmission would also be helpful since both solar panels and antennae present challenges for movement of agricultural machinery across the field. Having to change the path or adjust the equipment just to go over a solar panel or antenna adds to the time and cost of the intended operation and negatively impacts sensor desirability.
This graph shows the percentage of farms that use soil moisture sensors in making irrigation decisions. Data are from four USDA surveys (2003, 2008, 2013 and 2018) for seven top- irrigated states and the nation.
24 Irrigation TODAY | Summer 2021
The third opportunity for sensor manufacturers is to offer and/or better their decision support tools. Many sensors provide estimates of soil water content, temperature and apparent electrical conductivity at several soil layers and frequent time intervals. This means the users receive hundreds of data points every day. Presenting this large database in an easy-to-understand format and providing additional tools to turn data into decisions could boost sensor applications in irrigation scheduling. Using consistent terminology and graphics among manufacturers can also reduce confusion and the time required to learn about outputs of a new sensor.
Benefits for growers
For growers, one opportunity is to consider all benefits of implementing soil moisture sensors. Like any other technology, the return on investment should be reasonable and justified for soil moisture sensors to be purchased and used in irrigation management. In some cases, however, only the obvious
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