 The first screen that will appear is the main menu screen (Figure 7). This is the starting place to add new fields, enter soil and crop information, monitor daily soil moisture, log rainfall and irrigation amounts, and request field reports.
The main menu screen in the mobile app.
Click Add Field in the fourth row of the main menu screen. On the next screen, enter a field name and decimal degrees for north latitude and west longitude that are both positive numbers (e.g., Lat: 36.4151365N, Long: 89.7010119W). If you enter west longitude as a negative number, the program will correct it without error. You will have the option to find your field using Google Maps.
Be sure you have entered the correct GPS location for the field before clicking Submit. The location cannot be changed after you submit it, but it is easy to delete and re-enter a field. Although the latitude and longitude are locked in, soil texture for a field can be changed later if needed.
Enter the dominant five-digit NRCS soil series code for the field or select the dominant soil texture for the field. This is used to estimate available soil water holding capacity. For more information about soils, go to http://websoilsurvey.sc.egov.usda.gov/App/HomePage.htm.
Click Submit and then Back to main menu. The next step is setting up crop information. In the main menu, click Setup Soils and Crops. Then scroll to the field name and click the Choose Crops button under Crops in the column on the right.
Select the crop planted in the field and its planting date, which is set by default to December 31 (Figure 8). If you don't know the crop and planting date yet, do not guess. Skip these boxes and come back later. You can enter other inputs on this page even if you don't know the crop and planting date. Click Submit to save the information.
The next box on the page is Soil water deficit on planting date. Unless spring rainfall has been unusually low, leave this at the default value of zero, which is the field capacity, for initial soil moisture. This value is based on the entire rooting zone not just the soil surface. To check the soil moisture, use a soil probe or shovel and dig in the rooting zone. For coarse-textured soils at field capacity moisture, you should be able to roll a weak soil ball in your hand. For finer-textured soils, the ball will be firmer and should leave wet outlines of the soil on your hand. Learn more at http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/mt/about/?cid=nrcs144p2_056492.
You can probably fill in the rest of the inputs on this page. The effective root depth for most crops in Missouri is 18 to 24 inches. If the soil has a restrictive layer due to compaction, enter a shallower depth. The rooting depth can be modified at a later time if need be. Select the irrigation method and default rate of water application. Leave the allowable field water depletion at the default of 50 percent unless you want to be more liberal with your irrigation applications.
Click Yes on NWS Rainfall if you want the program to automatically enter estimated rainfall amounts based on GPS locations of the field, or click No to never use NWS rainfall estimates. If you click yes, you will also have the option during the season to substitute your rain gauge measurements for individual rainfall events or completely turn this feature off. Repeat these setup steps for other fields until you have entered all of your fields.
It is important to note that Field Status and Field Summary will show fields are inactive while weather files are being configured in the application. Please be patient. The application might take as long as a day to fully activate new fields after you have completed the setup process.
Page for entering field and crop information.
Monitor daily soil water in fields
In the main menu, click Field Status or Farm Summary to check daily water status in each field. Field Status shows estimates of the soil water balance for each field for the current day, and Farm Summary shows projected dryness indexes for all of your fields for today and the next week, assum