Apr 17, 2019

Onset to partner with NEWA’s Weather and Disease Modeling Platform 

Onset, a manufacturer of data loggers, will partner with the Network for Environment and Weather Applications (NEWA) to provide growers using HOBO weather stations access to NEWA disease- and pest-forecasting data.

NEWA is part of the New York State Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Program at Cornell University. It specializes in the provision of agricultural decision support tools for accurate plant disease and insect management forecast models across what is now a 24-state network.  Information from NEWA models helps farmers make short-term crop management decisions by using integrated pest management principles. With NEWA, farmers can avoid unnecessary pesticide applications, predict disease issues to best prepare for crop loss, and determine which fungicides to apply based on the predicted disease threat.

Combining HOBO RX3000 weather stations with NEWA’s decision support tools will give farmers access to microclimate monitoring data and real-time crop management decision support, allowing for faster, well-informed farm management decisions.

Growers can now simply select NEWA as their data feed in HOBOlink, Onset’s powerful cloud-based software for remote system management. Then they contact NEWA support to connect their station to the NEWA system and begin benefiting from a range of crop and disease models.

“Partnering with Onset is an exciting step forward for farmers, cooperative extension professionals, and researchers eager for such a collaboration,” said Dan Olmstead, NEWA Coordinator. “With NEWA’s crop production tools and resources, Onset’s agricultural customers will make better-informed pest management decisions.”

“We’re very excited to be integrating our HOBO RX3000 weather station data with NEWA,” said Jamie Pearce, Onset’s VP of Marketing and Corporate Development. “Not only does it help our agricultural customer base gain actionable insights, but also it delivers the option to leverage our new wireless sensors with the HOBOnet Field Monitoring System. Now, apple growers to vineyard managers can get a better sense of what’s happening throughout their fields.”

The new HOBOnet Field Monitoring System with wireless sensors is an alternative for NEWA users who want to measure multiple points over a wider coverage area. HOBOnet is ideal for a variety of crops and growing scenarios, including orchards where soil moisture is monitored in valleys and on hills, and vineyards where vine temperatures can be measured in sections across the growing area in order to optimize harvest times.

Above: Photo by Onset