Horizon Point Custom Weather Analysis

Watching the weather is interesting to most folks, but it is critical to farmers whose crops depend on just the right amount of rain at just the right temperatures. Bad weather has plagued farmers for as long as there has been agriculture, and when good weather comes along, we have much to be thankful for.

While we can’t do much to change the weather, there are tools available to give precise information about the weather as it relates to your crop. Many of these tools take weather information, and using scientific models, they can predict when an insect pest will become a potential pest problem, a specific weed will emerge, or when a disease will have the conditions it requires to infect your crop.

The University of Missouri has developed a free program called “Horizon Point,” which provides custom weather analysis for your farm. When you sign up for Horizon Point, you provide the latitude and longitude for your farm. Horizon Point then starts capturing weather data for that specific site from the National Weather Service. Once it has the data, it combines them with similar data which have been collected from a nearby MU Agricultural Weather Station. It then processes all the data using research-based scientific models which have been developed at the University of Missouri. Finally, Horizon Point sends site specific information and advisories to you in an easy to access email report.

Just what kind of information is available? In addition to precipitation, temperature, and wind forecasts, Horizon Point includes advisories on potential rainfall runoff, animal comfort, weed and insect scouting aids, soil temperature at planting depth, and more.

Additionally, a web link will provide you with the latest weather conditions closest to your farm using the Commercial Agriculture Real-Time Monitoring Network.

If you would like to enroll for Horizon Point email reports, you will need to access the web site. 

You will then provide an email address and other contact information, the latitude and longitude of the field or fields for which you desire reports, which advisories you want to receive, and finally, when to receive your email reports.

If you would like more information, please contact the Horizon Point team at 573-884-6311.

(by Tim Baker, Horticulture Specialist)