Tractors and combines get the attention. But a lot of what goes right or wrong on a farm comes down to temperature and moisture, and you can't manage either one without measuring it.
We don't sell farm machinery. What we do sell are the instruments that tell you what's going on inside a compost pile, a greenhouse, a load of produce or a cooler. Here are the main ones and what each is good for.
Compost, soil and hay
Compost has to heat up to break down properly, and a pile that cools off early usually needs turning. A long-stem dial thermometer like our 24-inch compost thermometer reaches the core of the pile, where the reading actually means something. No batteries and not much to break. The composting collection has other options too, including heavy-duty thermocouple probes and loggers for bigger operations.
Hay is worth a mention. Bales put up too wet can heat as they cure, and in bad cases that heat builds far enough to start a fire. A long probe lets you check the inside of a bale or stack before it turns into a problem.
Soil temperature matters for planting and germination, and for anyone studying how soil responds to weather. Our soil temperature collection includes long probes and data loggers that can stay in place and record through a season.
Produce and pulp temperature
Once a crop is picked, the clock starts. Fresh fruit and vegetables hold up best when field heat comes out quickly and they stay cold all the way to the buyer. That's why receiving docks often check pulp temperature, the temperature inside the produce itself, and not just the air in the truck.
A pulp thermometer has a sharp probe made to go into a piece of fruit or a vegetable easily. The PT100-01 is a simple, low-cost one. Our pulp temperature collection has more, including an infrared model for quick surface checks and LogTag recorders that ride along with a shipment.
Greenhouses, barns and storage
In a greenhouse, temperature and humidity work together. Too hot and plants get stressed. Too damp and you're inviting mold and disease. A hygrometer covers the humidity side, and a data logger records both around the clock so you can see what happened overnight, not just what it looked like when you walked in. Our greenhouse collection pulls these together.
Data loggers are just as useful in storage rooms, coolers and livestock buildings. A LogTag recorder can sit in a cooler for months and give you a record you can download any time. And if you'd rather check conditions from the house than walk out to the barn, some systems will send an alert when a reading goes out of range.
Outside, a basic weather station tracks conditions at your own place instead of the nearest airport. Depending on the model that can mean temperature, humidity, rainfall or wind. You'll find them in our weather stations collection.
Everything we carry for farm use, including GLA veterinary thermometers for livestock, is in our agriculture collection. Not sure where to start? Call us and tell us what you're growing or storing. We've been matching instruments to jobs like this since 1990.
