What this category does
Agricultural weather services bring weather to the scale of a field. They report rainfall and temperature at or near a farm, estimate soil moisture and crop growth stage, and forecast conditions for spraying, planting and harvest. Buyers include growers, advisers, input suppliers, insurers and food companies that track supply.
The services range from a phone app for one farm to data feeds that cover millions of fields. Many combine forecasts with satellite imagery, on-farm sensors and agronomic models, so the product is partly weather and partly crop science.
Pricing varies widely, from a small fee per farm to contracts priced per acre or per field. Ask what happens to the price as your acreage grows, and whether sensor hardware is included or sold separately.
How buyers evaluate
The most useful evaluation takes place over one growing season, or at least a stretch of it that includes the decisions you care about. Buyers compare the service's rainfall and temperature for their fields against a rain gauge or station they trust, and they check whether the advice, such as a spray window, matched what they would have done.
Because conditions differ a lot between neighboring fields, ask how the provider gets field-level values. A value interpolated from a distant station is not the same as one built from local sensors or radar. RFP criteria for larger buyers cover geographic coverage, crops supported, the agronomic models used, integration with farm management software, historical data for analysis, and support during the season.
Trials are often limited to a few weeks outside the growing season, so ask whether a pilot can run in season for the crop you grow.
Check what the service does when conditions fall outside the usual pattern. A drought year or an unusually wet spring tests an agronomic model harder than a typical season, and a vendor that has been through such a year can show how its advice held up.
Questions to ask a vendor
- How do you get weather values for my field: station, radar, model or sensor?
- Which crops and growth models do you support, and who developed them?
- Can I connect my own sensors or a rain gauge, and will you use them?
- Does the service integrate with the farm management software I already use?
- How far back does the history go for my fields?
- What does support look like during planting and harvest?
- Who owns the field data I upload, and may you share it?
How to read the capability facts
On a profile, look at the parameters for soil and agronomic data and for precipitation, since these separate a farm service from a general forecast. Check the regions for coverage of the places you farm, and the product types to see whether you are buying an app, an API or consulting. The delivery field shows whether results arrive on a dashboard, by email or into other software.
Profile facts do not tell you how local the data is. Ask for a sample of values for one of your fields and compare it with your own measurements.
Finally, think about who will read the output. A grower in the middle of a busy week needs a clear recommendation, while an agronomist wants the numbers behind it. A good service offers both without making either hard to find.
Where to go next
Match the service to the crop and region first, then test it against a rain gauge or station you trust.
Browse the Agriculture providers, filter them by region, parameter and pricing, or compare several side by side. The full list of categories is the place to start if your need spans more than one.