CropManage is an online decision support tool for assisting growers and farm managers in determining water and nitrogen fertilizer applications on a field-by-field basis. The software automates steps required to calculate crop water needs from weather data and models of crop development, and estimates fertilizer N requirements through a combination of infield measurements and models of crop N uptake and soil and crop residue mineralization. The web application also helps growers maintain records of irrigation schedules and nitrogen fertilizer applications on multiple fields, and allows users from the same farming operations to view and share data.
CropManage was originally developed by UC Cooperative Extension and is currently free to use, and can be accessed at: https://cropmanage.ucanr.edu The application can be accessed with a web browser using a smartphone, laptop, or tablet computer. The tool uses up-to-date secure login procedures to protect user data. In addition, only individuals designated by the ranch owner can view and/or edit water, fertilizer, and soil and plant sample records for a specific ranch.
CropManage was designed to be intuitive for growers and farm managers to navigate and use. Once logged on, users can view a list of ranches/farms that they have permission to access and create new ranches.
Each ranch contains a list of currrent (active) crops referred to as plantings and a list of past (inactive) plantings. Each planting has a planting card that summarizes the planting and field names, crop type, planting configuration as well as the planting and harvest dates.
The planting cards display the most recent upcoming and past irrigation, fertilizer, and soil sample events. Users can add new events for a planting by selecting the appropriate icon or display all the events for a planting by selecting the table or list at the bottom right side of the planting card.
Get started using CropManage by visiting our “Let’s get started” tutorial. You might also want to view an introductory video on CropManage.