Hi Shakna Both the pilot mesonet in the Mid North and the subsequent network in the Riverland Mallee were actually strongly supported by local growers. Many fa

Hi Shakna Both the pilot mesonet in the Mid North and the subsequent network in the Riverland Mallee were actually strongly supported by local growers. Many farmers are embracing the latest AgTech to farm more efficiently. A majority of pesticide sprays such as 2,4-D and glyphosate have label requirements that state they cannot be sprayed during an inversion. It is illegal to spray during an inversion and farmers must keep records of their spray times. Without the mesonet, spray applicators had no easy way to know if an inversion was present or not. Given inversions typically happen at night time, many growers adopted a method of not spraying from dusk until dawn. Now, with the mesonet data, they find that their ‘spray window’ is possibly different and may even open up more time for them to spray. Most farmers want to do the right thing, and now they have the real-time data to make informed decisions. Also, the public nature of the data display means that anyone spraying during an inversion will be noticed by their neighbours. This will hopefully lead to cultural change and practice change as the public data will make it highly awkward for ’cowboy’ growers in the community to flout the rules and claim ignorance. We also have all the historical records should the regulators ask for it if a spray drift event occurs.