Natural Resources Wales’ (NRW) Four Rivers for LIFE project is working with the Agriculture Research Centre (ARC) based at the Gelli Aur Campus near Llandeilo to install Weather Stations on farms within the Cleddau river catchment.
The new stations follow a trial of 10 weather stations, six in the river Tywi catchment as part of the SMS Supporting Natura 2000 Restoration project and four funded by Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water within the river Usk and river Wye catchments.
The weather stations provide real time data on soil moisture, soil temperature and leaf moisture which are key to grass growth and the appropriateness of nutrient and chemical application.
They also give local weather conditions and provide a weather forecast. This information will allow the farmer to apply nutrients to the land at the right time for optimum growth and lower the risk of excess nutrients entering the river.
The data collected by the weather stations are fed into a central database which is accessible to anyone through a portal and phone app with the information featuring an easy to understand traffic light system.
The use of weather stations in this way is just one of many technological solutions to the Water Resources (Control of Agricultural Pollution) (Wales) Regulations 2021 the FUW submitted to the Welsh Government in September 2022.
For more information and to download the app please visit: https://arc-csg.cymru/tywydd-tywi-weather-app/