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.


Water Calculator

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.