Forecast

FACTS soil moisture benchmarking tool

May 29, 2021

Sandy to clay soils have different hydrological properties such as wilting point, field capacity, and saturation level (Fig 1a). Wilting point means no water is available to plants, field capacity means near optimum moisture for plant growth, and saturation means the soil pores are full of water. Root growth, plant transpiration, and soil nitrogen mineralization are inhibited by too little or too much soil moisture. Nitrogen losses (denitrification and leaching) and soil water evaporation are favored by excess moisture. Thus, knowing the soil moisture level is critically important. Read more about FACTS soil moisture benchmarking tool

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FACTS

The Forecast and Assessment of Cropping Systems, or FACTS, is an ongoing project to provide professionals involved in the agriculture industry with important data to make informed decisions about their cropping systems.

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FACTS is an ongoing project developed to forecast and evaluate in real-time soil-crop dynamics at  specific ISU research fields (field scale) and at regional scale. Predictions will be frequently updated as new information becomes available. The project investigators and Iowa State University are not responsible for extrapolations made by individuals to other fields. Information from this website can be used for presentations without further permission if used in its entirety and credit is given to the Iowa State University FACTS project. Information from this website cannot be used in publications or other model improvement activities without prior permission of the project investigators.