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Online Farm Trials
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Online Farm Trials

Online Farm Trials (OFT), a collaborative research project with the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC), digitally transforms trial research information for Australia’s grains industry. OFT uniquely provides advanced spatial search and filtering functionality to enable growers, advisors, and researchers to rapidly find published research trials most likely to be decision useful. Spatial integration of other relevant location-based grains, soil and climate data from complementary national, state, and regional databases provide more comprehensive and relevant detail to support users in their trial search.
 

Online Farm Trials website

Online Farm Trials website

Background

Prior to the development of OFT the results of grains trial research were available via hard copy reports or basic electronic format, dispersed across and within different organisations. Information was difficult to access, and manual searches were time consuming resulting in farm trial research being underutilised and repeated. Consequently, valuable information was available only to a limited number of industry stakeholders.

OFT enables farm trial research to be accessed online and explored spatially via sophisticated filtering mechanisms in ways that are decision useful to growers, advisors, and researchers.

Outcomes

OFT enables online access to past and current grains research information on a national and industry-wide basis to facilitate practice change and improve the international competitiveness of the grains industry. 

Obtaining decision-useful information is significantly more efficient, saving time for growers and agronomists.

Access to legacy data reduces unnecessary duplication of farm trials, improving the productivity and efficiency of resources for grains research.

Impact research identified the importance of legacy and contemporary trial data in decision-making and the benefit in OFT providing direct access to these data. By making trial results accessible digitally, this enabled users to search for relevant trial information succinctly and expediently; it enabled the identification of trends in research trials, and the ability to undertake spatio-temporal assessments across Australia’s grain production zones.

Access to soil conditions and climate data provided by OFT in addition to the trial method and treatments, and results, was also identified by impact research as important companion data for decision making.
 

Online Farm Trials

 

Innovation

  • Spatial enablement and interoperable data exchange technologies allow integration of regional, state, and national climate and soil data from complementary sources such as the Bureau of Meteorology, the Soil and Landscape Grid of Australia as well as data from GRDC final reports and Source Trial Reports;
  • Direct online access to trial research data in digital form with download capacity;
  • Online analytical tools for growers, advisors, and researchers; and,
  • Trial search - enables searching of specific farm trials data using advanced querying, filtering, and spatial search tools.
     
Online Farm Trials - Trial search

Online Farm Trials - Trial search

Technical features

  • A flexible import system designed to support grower and research groups to contribute their trial data collections of varying format and structures;
  • The OFT administration centre that supports data custodians (or authorised delegates) to add, remove and edit trial project data at any time;
  • An embeddable version of the trial search interface, or ‘widget,' is available for contributors to use on their own website and benefit from the functionality and comparable data added by the OFT system;
  • A trial result data API which allows developers to consume data via a public RESTful JSON service. CSV, Excel, and JSON export options are also provided for trial searches; and,
  • Use of data interoperability approaches enables trials information to be supplemented with additional data relevant to growers (soil, climate, sensor, and other data).

Approach

  OFT stall at farming event in Victoria
   

OFT has been implemented using a staged co-creation approach. A pilot project in late 2013 guided the development of the OFT research tools and resources and included participants from three grower groups - Liebe Group (WA), Northern Grower Alliance (Qld) and Southern Farming Systems (Vic), as well as consultations with GRDC staff, GRDC panel chairs and other organisations (e.g., Kondinin Group in Western Australia).

Pilot groups provided historical trial data in various formats to allow the development of the central trial database and the OFT research applications. The International Plant Nutrition Institute and the Birchip Cropping Group also provided sample data for testing and developing the trial search interface.

The focus then shifted to scaling up the participation of grower groups and other trial research organisations by supporting them to make their farm trial data available for discovery and reuse. OFT currently contains data from 6,120+ trial projects (over 13,500 trials) from more than 80 project contributors - 85% of which are publicly available.

Future Directions

Search, visual and spatial tools are continuing to be developed in response to grower and advisor needs. Insights to user experiences from impact research have informed the OFT development roadmap.

The innovations developed for OFT have the potential to be applied to other food and fibre industries (e.g., horticulture, cotton, meat, wine, and dairy) to enable greater access to research information and improve Australia’s agricultural industries.
 

Online Farm Trials

 

 

  • Research output icon

    RESEARCH OUTPUT

    Ollerenshaw, A., Murphy, A., Walters, J., Robinson, N., & Thompson, H. (2023). Use of digital technology for research data and information transfer within the Australian grains sector: A case study using Online Farm Trials. Agricultural Systems, 206, 103591. doi.org/10.1016/j.agsy.2022.103591 External link icon

    Walters, J., Milne, R. and Thompson, H. (2018). Online Farm Trials: a national web-based information source for Australia grains research, development and extension. Rural Extension and Innovation Systems Journal, Vol. 14, No. 1, 2018: 117-123.

    Robinson, N., Thompson, H., Milne, R., Wills, B., Feely, P., MacLeod, A., Parker, J. and Walters, J. (2018). Online Farm Trials: Data Quality Framework for OFT trial resources. CeRDI Internal Report. 60p.

    Wills, B., Parker, J., Thompson, H., Taylor, M. and Feely, P. (2018). Online Farm Trials (OFT): External Data Audit Report. CeRDI Internal Report. 24p.

    Robinson, N., Thompson, H., Milne, R., Wills, B., Feely, P., McLeod, A., Parker, J. and Walters, J. (2018). Online Farm Trials: Statistical reliability of OFT trial resources assessed and reported. CeRDI Internal Report. 49p.

    Murphy, A., McKenna, K., Corbett, J. and Taylor, M. (2016). Online Farm Trials Impact Research: First Wave. CeRDI Internal Report. 106p.

    Dahlhaus, P.G. and Thompson, H. (2014). GRDC eResearch. Online knowledge base, research data and tools to enhance Australian grains research. Discussion Paper. Centre for eResearch and Digital Innovation. Federation University. 12p.

    Milne, R., Dahlhaus, P.G., Nicholson, C., Thompson, H., MacLeod, A., Feely, P., McCue, T., Gillett, H. and Corbett, J. (2014). Online farm trials: A research repository for Australian grain growers. Paper presented at Digital Rural Futures, Regional futures - Agricultural Futures - Digital Futures, 25-27 June 2014, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Queensland. Conference paper.

    Dahlhaus, P.G., Thompson, H. and Macleod, A. (2013). Interoperable data - a researcher's dream? Paper presented at Digital Rural Futures conference on Smart Farms - Smart Regions, 26-28 June 2013. Armidale, New South Wales. Conference paper.

  • Project Videos

    VIDEOS

    User stories

    Online Farm Trials (OFT)
    Online Farm Trials (6:09)

    The principle objective of the Online Farm Trials project is to help improve the productivity and sustainability of farming enterprises by improving access to trial research information. www.farmtrials.com.au .

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    Online Farm Trials (OFT) - Why participate in the OFT project?
    Online Farm Trials - Why participate in the OFT project? (2:19)

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    Online Farm Trials (OFT) - SFS Case Study (Malt vs. Barley)
    Online Farm Trials - SFS Case Study (Malt vs. Barley) (5:00)

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    How do researchers use OFT? with Amanda Schapel (1:47)

    How do researchers use OFT? with Amanda Schapel (1:47)

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    Denielle - Northern Grower Alliance (4:16)

    Denielle - Northern Grower Alliance (4:16)

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    Amali - Federation University researcher

    Amali - Federation University researcher (1:52)

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    How can OFT help in agronomy education? with Ben Jones (1:00)

    How can OFT help in agronomy education? with Ben Jones (1:00)

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    How do project managers use OFT? With Naomi Scholz (1:51)

    How do project managers use OFT? With Naomi Scholz (1:51)

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    Training videos

    Adding new trial site location

    Adding new trial site location (1:33)

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    Adding trial project

    Adding trial project (3:06)

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    How to search on OFT (1:04)

    How to search on OFT (1:04)

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  • Our partners icon

    PARTNERS

    Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC)

    GRDC has provided on-going funding and support for OFT since 2013, as part of its objective to drive the discovery, development and delivery of world-class innovation to enhance the productivity, profitability and sustainability of Australian grain growers.

    Grains Research & Development Corporation

     

    Northern Grower Alliance

    Northern Grower Alliance (NGA) with members based in Queensland and Northern NSW participated in the pilot project for OFT and the development of trial content and format. NGA has contributed 351 published trials from 451 trial sites over the years 2006-2017.

    Northern Grower Alliance

     

    Grower Group Alliance

    The Grower Group Alliance coordinated the trial data acquisition and support program for growers in Western Australia, including providing training and technical support to assist groups to upload their trial data.

    Grower Group Alliance

     

    Liebe Group

    The Liebe Group with members based in the Wheatbelt of Western Australia participated in the pilot project for OFT and the development of trial content and format. The Liebe Group has contributed 517 published trials from 152 trial sites over the years 2002-2017.

    Liebe Group

     

    Southern Farming Systems

    Southern Farming Systems (SFS) with members based in the higher rainfall zone of South-West Victoria participated in the pilot project for OFT and the development of trial content and format. SFS has contributed 945 published trials from 94 trial sites over the years 1996-2017.

    Southern Farming Systems

     

    Birchip Cropping Group

    The Birchip Cropping Group (BCG) based in the Wimmera and Mallee dryland farming regions of Victoria provided advice from the grower perspective during the early stages of OFT and has contributed sample trial data for testing and development of the Trial Explorer. BCG has contributed 1373 published trials from 122 trial sites over the years 1993-2017.

    Birchip Cropping Group

     

    International Plant Nutrition Institute

    The International Plant Nutrition Institute provided expert advice during the pilot project for OFT and the development of trial content and format and has contributed sample trial data from sites in Victoria for testing and development of the Trial Explorer.

    International Plant Nutrition Institute

     

    Victorian Grower Group Alliance

    The Victorian Grower Group Alliance (VGGA) coordinated the trial information transfer process into OFT database with Victorian research organisations.

    Nicon Rural Services

    Nicon Rural Services based in Victoria provided expert advice from the grower and agronomist perspectives throughout the OFT project.

    Ag Excellence Alliance (South Australia)

     

 

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