Davis, CA – April 12, 2022 As the rainy season ends, it’s unmistakable that California grape growers are staring down the barrel of the third straight year of drought. The Central Valley Project has mandated that there will be zero water allocation for growers this year. Access to groundwater will soon face unprecedented restrictions. Things are looking bleak, to say the least.
But two California-based ag companies are joining forces to help grape growers survive these increasing water shortages. Tule and HotSpot AG offer a turnkey irrigation solution to manage water efficiently. The dynamic partnership makes it possible for growers to save energy, use less water, and even improve yields.
Tule’s UC Davis-developed technology resolves some of growers’ most vital questions. How much water are my vines using? How water-stressed are my vines? How much should I irrigate to meet my production goals? These questions can be answered by understanding Actual Evapotranspiration (ETa).
“Actual Evapotranspiration is the critical piece of information for surviving a drought,” explains Tule CEO Tom Shapland, PhD. “Actual Evapotranspiration is the amount of water a vine uses. When growers know how much water their vineyards use, they know exactly how much water they need to replace to the vineyard.”
Tule sensors are the only commercially available technology that measures in-field Actual Evapotranspiration. Tule helps growers make irrigation decisions by measuring ETa, reporting vine water stress, and recommending irrigations to keep a crop within a grower’s target stress zone.
Once a grower understands their crop water needs through Tule, HotSpot AG allows growers to easily execute irrigations on those insights. With HotSpot AG, users can schedule a recommended irrigation and monitor pump health, flows, and pressures in real-time via a computer, smartphone, or tablet. Notifications can be configured to keep you and your team informed on the irrigation system’s performance.
Both technologies were eligible for funding through CDFA’s recent State Water Efficiency and Enhancement Program (SWEEP). SWEEP grants help growers implement measures to reduce greenhouse gases and save water in their agricultural operations. The Program awarded $43 million in 2022, and both Tule and HotSpot AG are expected to be eligible for the next application window.
“SWEEP has awarded many growers funding to implement HotSpot AG and Tule at their operations,” says James Nichols, president of HotSpot AG. “SWEEP is a great fit for the HotSpot AG solution as our equipment measures both water use and energy consumption and gives growers the ability to precisely apply water.”
In increasingly frequent drought years, growers need all the help they can get to continue to produce high-quality crops for California consumers and global markets. The need for additional tools in the water-management toolbox is more important than ever. Tule and HotSpot AG offer grape growers a partnership that brings a new era of precision farming to California.
About Tule
Tule helps growers make irrigation decisions. Founded in 2014, Tule (pronounced “too-lee”) combines cutting-edge artificial intelligence with in-the-field agronomic expertise to provide growers with the information to make the best irrigation decisions to meet production goals. The UC Davis research-based Tule sensors provide growers with crop water use measurements, water stress measurements, applied irrigation measurements, and irrigation recommendations.
About HotSpot AG
HotSpot AG was developed on a 4th-generation farm. As farmers, they know it results from the thousands of tasks they do throughout the year that makes a successful harvest. HotSpot AG’s vision is to empower the 21st-century farm with tools to simplify farm management and make those thousands of tasks routine. They combine the greatest in available technology and service to deliver solutions used by all levels of personnel on a farm.
