How does the automated rain gauge system work?
The rain gauges are self-emptying, digital gauges. They track every 0.2 mm of rain that falls. As the rain collects in a funnel it drips out the bottom onto a triggering lever. Each time this lever trips it represents 0.2 mm of rainfall. We then go around every couple of weeks and download the information from the recorder onto a shuttle and then save this info onto our computer. We guarantee farmers that they will receive at least 80% of the 30-year historical rainfall in their area. If there is less rainfall than the 30-year average, then we pay a claim to the farmer. It’s a very simple and easy method of insuring a forage crop, as we are just insuring rainfall. Growth of forage is very closely related to amount of rain received, so instead of trying to calculate yield on that crop, we insure the rain that fell. As this program grows we are hoping to put modems on these rain gauges so that we can dial in from our head office and collect the rain data without going to the field. How d
