12/10/2020 – You may have noticed some unexplained changes to the moisture percentage readings on Farming Forecaster towards the end of last week. The reason behind this is Matt Lieschke from the LLS has updated the calibration settings at all the probe sites over Thursday and Friday of last week. The reason for calibrating is so that the whole network of probes are bought up-to-date as August 2020 was the first time the sites have fully wetted up and recharged to depth. This is important because the moisture readings are a relative measurement (expressed as a percentage) and we need to establish both the bottom (dry) and upper readings (wet/ Field Capacity) for each sensor depth and the wet August allowed for this to happen across the whole network.
Matt is confident that the calibration settings are now correct and will be right from now on as we have experienced the recent drought conditions (bottom/dry readings) and to date, the good 2020 season (wet/field capacity readings). You can be confident that the soil moisture readings are now fully calibrated and accurate with the exception of Hovell’s Creek as it has only recently been established.
If you have any questions or comments on the Farming Forecaster site or anything else TFS related, please email us.