CropManage requires evapotranspiration data for estimating crop water use.   The software can automatically import reference evapotranspiration and precipitation data from any weather station that is part of the California Irrigation Management and Information System (CIMIS) operated by the California Department of Water Resources.

Every ranch in CropManage must be associated with one or more CIMIS weather stations.   This can be done in Ranch Settings by selecting the add or “plus” button under weather stations.

A map showing the closest CIMIS stations to your ranch will open.  Select the stations that you would like to associate with your ranch by checking the box on the list to left of the google map.   Note that some stations shown may no longer be in operation and only have historical data.   If you are not familiar with which stations are currently operating in your region, check the CIMIS website.

Zooming to the location of your ranch will reduce the list of weather stations on the list to the left.

After selecting one or more weather stations, select the “pencil” icon to set preferences on how CropManage will use the weather data.

You can select if the weather data from more than one station should be averaged (average mode) or if the weather data should be collected in an order of preference  (sequential mode), where data from the first station is used, but if those data are not available, data from the next station on the list is used.  Note that these preferences affect both the ET and rainfall data.

Another option for ET data is to select spatial CIMIS, where reference ET is based on a hybrid of satellite and weather station data, and provides an estimated reference ET at a 2 km resolution.  This option may be preferable if the ranch is a long distance from a CIMIS weather station.

Don’t forget to select “save” before closing the dialog box

The stations listed in the ranch settings can be dragged into the order of preference.

Now you are ready for the next step: adding water sources to your ranch