“We live in Gantt, but I farm all over Covington County,” said Thompson who has 1,800 acres of peanuts and cotton, several poultry houses and 250 brood cows. “The weather dictates how I plan my entire day. This monitoring system sends me a report each day by email and tells me exactly how much rain has fallen in a particular field in the last 24 hours. Otherwise, I might have to drive as far as 25 miles just to see if we got a rain on that field.” Thompson was among several farm leaders in the Alabama Farmers Federation who participated in a pilot program for MyRainReport.com. In addition to receiving daily emails, Thompson also continued to monitor rainfall using traditional rain gauges in his fields. “I can tell you it was very accurate,” Thompson said of the computerized readings he received for about a year. “It is amazing how accurate it was. I know sometimes you’ll see on television that it’s raining in a certain location, but when you get there it hasn’t rained a drop. With this system, if it says it rained in a particular spot, you can count on it - it rained there.”

At Beck’s Turf Farm, we regularly monitor and evaluate weather conditions and soil moisture because of their effects on the health of our turf and other plants. Recently, with the help of MyRainReport.com we have been relieved of one of our most important, yet time consuming, monitoring practices—tracking rainfall. MyRainReport.com provides us with an accurate rain report following each rain event, and we trust their numbers. With the MyRainReport.com service, we are saving both time and money, and because we know exactly how much rain hits our fields, we can also save water by depending on the rain reports to plan our irrigation schedules.

I was asked to conduct a study to compare rainfall data provided by MyRainReport.com with amounts recorded by rain gauges at three separate locations. After two months of recording rainfall and analyzing my records and the reports provided by MyRainReport.com, I can say that I am very impressed by this service. The service eliminates the need to check rain gauges after each rain event, saving both time and money. I would recommend this service to anyone with a need to monitor and record rainfall.