Growers in Ventura County are required to file Irrigation Efficiency reports to
FCGMA at least once a year. InvestmentSignals is prepared to offer a trial
service to growers so they can try out the IDS Irrigation Efficency Program.
This program is a very simple tool to help growers meet the Allowed Water levels
and avoid penalties and fees at the end of the year.
Growers have two options:
1) A Grower may simply view an Irrigation Efficiency Report at anytime and watch
the standard "Irrigation Index" for the day, week, or month. This Index will
enable a grower to visually see how the Allowed Water levels for a specific area
and crop change over time. By comparing these levels against your irrigation
patterns (ie. increasing or decreasing) you should see a matching pattern in order
to maintain a specific irrigation efficiency.
2) You may anonymously enter an irrigation total into the Water Calculator for a specific period of time (week,
weeks, month, or months) and the system will automatically show you your specific
Irrigation Efficiency based on the Allowed Water values for your area. The
day, week, or monthy Irrigation Index will then be specific for your irrigation needs. See the example below of the Water Calculator for
an explaination.
The Water Calculator is an anonymous tool to quantify water requirements based on weather conditions.
The Water Calculator automatically calculates a growers Irrigation Efficiency over a variable time period.
Here’s how it works: A grower simply selects an irrigation
cycle that they performed recently. This can be any period of time, a week, a month, or even longer.
A grower enters the amount of water applied during that time, the area it was applied to, select the crop type, and the closest
weather station, and clicks calculate. That’s it!
An Irrigation Efficiency is calculated based on ET, effective
rain, and allowed water for that time period. The higher the efficiency percentage the more water that is being conserved.
The Irrigation Index provides another input parameter for grower's to quatify how the weather has effect their crops.
Here is an example of what the Water Calculator input look's like:
Once a gorwer has identified their Irrigation Efficiency value (ie: 165%) in this
example the grower is no in the position to use the Irrigation Index in a quantifible
manner. The Irrigation Index that is supplied in daily, weekly, and monthly
totals represent a percentage of water to be applied in relation to your last irrigation
cycle.
In this example, this index value provides a relative value based on the water to
be applied compared to the irrigation cycle identify previously. For example,
if a grower were to irrigate today using the example above, only 85% of the 5.3AF
of water applied on Sep 10-17th should be applied now...or 4.5AF. Applying
4.5AF as opposed to the previous 5.3AF is needed in order to maintain the growers
current Irrigation Efficiency. If the grower puts on more water than 4.5AF
then the Irrigation Efficiency will drop.
By viewing the Irrigation Index from time to time and watching your current Irrigation
Effciency rise or fall growers can become more aware of their efficiency progress
throughout the year rather than simply at the end of the year.