PA meets Lot - Integrating in-situ Sensor Data and Biomass Prediction Tools for Crops and Pastures

Abstract

Monitoring pasture growth rate is an important component of managing grazing livestock production systems. In this study we demonstrate a pasture growth rate (PGR) model, initially designed for very large scale satellite imagery, can be operated at a scale of metres when incorporating in-situ sensor data. A light use efficiency (LUE)-based PGR model was combined with in-situ measurements from proximal weather (temperature), plant (fAPAR) and soil (relative moisture) sensors to calculate the growth rate of a tall fescue pasture. When incorporating in-situ measurements of temperature and moisture index, the model provided an accuracy (RMSE) of 1.68 kg/ha.day (R² = 0.96, p-value ≈ 0).