MAD stands for Managed Allowable Depletion. It's an unnecessarily complicated way to say “Irrigation Threshold”. The Irrigation Threshold is the soil moisture percentage at which you want to start irrigation. On the “AWC” graph on Semios this is represented as the point between the green and yellow regions. By default the threshold is set at 70%. That means that irrigation is encouraged when 30% of the total plant available water is used up. It is helpful to note that 70% isn’t based on any scientific recommendation, it is simply a safe place to keep the soil moisture as it will keep your crops from experiencing water stress in most situations and soils. As your proficiency in irrigation develops, you may wish to be more precise in your practices and set a custom threshold based on your soil data, soil moisture trends, stress measurement devices, or observations in the field. Follow the steps below if you wish to set your own custom irrigation threshold.
Currently, these settings must be changed via live.semios.com.
Login to live.semios.com
Navigate to Water Management>Soil
Select the zone you wish to adjust
In the top right corner select “Edit MAD”
5. A window will pop up. In the window select, “Add MAD Date”.
6. Select the date you wish the change to take place and the percentage of Available Water Content (AWC) that you wish to choose as your irrigation threshold.
7. Push “Create MAD Date”
The new threshold is now saved and applied to your AWC graph and Infiltration Map.
You may choose to set one threshold for the entire year, or you can change the threshold ahead of time for specific seasonal changes such as hull split, grape veraison, or harvest dry down.