Thanksgiving had come and gone and although I went north from Oklahoma to Wisconsin to visit family, I took a jaunt even further to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan to attend and speak at the Farm Forum Event hosted by Agri-Trend.

The Farm Forum event gave me an opportunity to talk one on one with growers and advisors on the advanced weather tools that have been added to the Agri-Data platform. I was apprehensive at first. At most events, I spend a lot of time teaching folks how WDT's weather data is different from not only other companies, but also from what they see on the local news. That, or I deal with the occasional joke about how weather is the only job where you can be right ½ the time.

I found out quickly that this conference was different. A lot of growers and advisors had been using our data over the course of the last month before the forum, as Agri-Data prepares for the launch this month. Instead of talking about a 5 day forecast and how WDT differs from others, we dove into a variety of subjects. These included such topics as how weather impacts canola, how station data can be assimilated into analysis products, hail use cases, resolution differences, forecast accuracy, and of course how seeing archived, current, and forecasted precipitation on the field helps growers make better decisions. Normally as a meteorologist, I’m the butt of a lot of jokes. However, with the growers and coaches at Agri-Trend, it was a mix of praise of how accurate we were compared to others and the possibilities of what’s to come. In my entire meteorology career, I’ve never been around so many individuals that not only understood the value of high resolution weather, but also expressed how WDT’s data had impacted their lives on the farm for the better.

Agri-Trend and WDT have only just begun. Growers and coaches have challenged both WDT and Agri-Trend to think of the next application of weather and agriculture. By combining their agronomic and our meteorological expertise, we plan to create even more amazingly accurate decision tools for growers. I leave Saskatoon a bit frozen and with a renewed sense of vigor on how wonderful our partnership is going to change the lives of growers in Canada and the world over.