Soil CRC
In 2017, the Cooperative Research Centre for High Performance Soils (Soil CRC) 
was awarded $39.5 million over 10 years to assist Australian farmers make decisions on complex soil management issues. Federation University has a major role in this CRC project, which is designed to optimise productivity, yield and profitability and ensure long-term sustainability of farming businesses. The University will contribute research expertise to better assist management and decision making in the use and development of high performance soils.
In 2024, over $1.2 million in funding was granted to three projects in which CeRDI is leading or collaborating on. These include;
- $800,000 in funding over three years to transform the VAS into an enduring component of an Australasian soils knowledge system that is self-sustaining and inherently useful for research and education. ‘Visualising Australasia's Soils’ (VAS) project.
- The Soil CRC awarded $400,000 in funding for a project to formulate a set of relevant metrics for indicators that matter to practitioners of soil stewardship ‘Review of target values for soil performance indicators and their interdependencies’. Led by CeRDI Senior Research Fellow Dr Nathan Robinson, the project involves co-design with project partners including practitioners and experts to identify combinations of soil type, climate and land use with locally relevant management practice information to inform soil performance metrics, corrective actions and management options.
- Another $20,000 has also been awarded for another project led by Professor Keith Pembleton (University of Southern Queensland) to collate models and algorithms developed in past Soil CRC research projects into a suite of novel decision support tools to assist growers and their advisors when making soil amelioration decisions ‘The next generation tools to engineer higher performing soils - development, validation, promotion and legacy’. This project is supported by CeRDI researcher Dr Nathan Robinson
Dr Peter Weir
Research overview: With the adoption of Precision Agriculture (PA) and implementation of site-specific crop management (SSCM) by farmers, there is a better understanding of both spatial and temporal variabilities in cropping fields and to a lesser extent, pastures. Large amounts of data have been acquired by farm businesses by sampling and analysis, and from monitors on harvesters, with the aim of improving crop and soil management. These ‘big data’ sources have the potential to improve the management and efficiency of farm enterprises.
The utilisation of disparate legacy spatio-temporal datasets to determine in-paddock variability of soil attributes associated with crop production and pasture management is to be investigated, focussing on assembling, interrogating, and cross analysing the data that has already been collected by farmers.
Development of a conceptual model, using existing spatio-temporal data as the basis for predictions of within-paddock variability in plant-available water (PAW), which will consider publicly available data sets including satellite imagery, landscape metrics, soil moisture measurements, digital soil data, and meteorological data.
Soil moisture is one of the most common requirements in decision support systems used by farmers, agronomists, and agricultural services. These outputs will contribute to the decision support systems running “under-the-hood”, contributing to the “dashboard” display being developed as part of other research projects currently underway.
Peter commenced his studies in early 2020, and graduated with a PhD in 2025. Peter was supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program fee-offset scholarship through Federation University Australian and a scholarship from the Cooperative Research Centre for High Performance Soils funded by the Australian Government’s Cooperative Research Centre Program.
Soil CRC news: Better understanding of within-field spatial variability of soil water
Thesis: In-paddock variability of plant available water
Sadia Sabrin Nodi
Soils CRC PhD Student Profile: Sadia Sabrin Nodi, Development of a grower focused mobile app for estimating, analysis and recording soil properties
Kalani Pathira Arachchilage
Soils CRC PhD Student Profile: Kalani Pathira Arachchilage, Toward Digital Mapping of Soil Moisture
Listed below are the projects that CeRDI has been involved in by Research Program:
Program 1
Program 2
- Project 2.1.01: A review of indicators of soil health and function: farmers’ needs and data management
- Project 2.1.006: Matching soil performance indicators to farming systems
- Project 2.1.009: Soil performance indicators and their interdependencies
- Project 2.2.01: Soil sensor technologies - which ones are most useful for smarter farming?
- Project 2.2.005: Improved soil data management
- Project 2.3.001: Visualising Australasia’s Soils
- Project 2.3.002: Visualising Australasia’s Soils: extending the soil data federation
- Project 2.3.003: Visualising Australasia’s Soils: building a legacy
Program 3
- Project 3.3.01: Mapping projects on ameliorating soil constraints, and review of soil constraints, products and technologies
- Project 3.3.003: New amendments for sandy soils
Program 4
Knowledge Sharing for Good Soil Stewardship
Knowledge Sharing for Good Soil Stewardship project was funded by the Cooperative Research Centre for High Performance Soils (Soil CRC). This two year project (2021-2023) was led by Dr Hanabeth Luke, Southern Cross University, and aimed to:
- Identify and test knowledge sharing strategies to increase the number of landholders actively engaged in soil health improvement practices across four farming regions.
- Identify policies and regulations that enable or constrain knowledge sharing.
- Provide recommendations for training and engagement for others involved in extension.
- Create a Knowledge Sharing Guide for grower groups.
The project centred on tailored knowledge sharing plans for four grower groups. Groups were located in the Eyre Peninsula of South Australia, the West Midlands of Western Australia, the Central West of New South Wales and North-Western Victoria. The knowledge sharing plans were co-developed by researchers and the grower groups. They considered which strategies and approaches were most effective for engaging different target groups in each region, including underrepresented groups such as women and youth.
A range of project partners and industry stakeholders including industry organisations, grower groups, and universities.
CeRDI was a partner on the project and conducted research to monitor and document the role and application of digital strategies used by the four grower groups across the duration of the Knowledge Sharing project.
The Project Fact Sheet is available at the Soil CRC website: soilcrc.com.au/resources/knowledge-sharing-for-good-soil-stewardship/
Soil Performance Indicators and their Interdependencies
Previous Soil CRC research has shown that land managers use a range of indicators and observations to assess soil performance and limitations to production systems. This project builds on this research and the ‘Matching soil performance indicators to farming systems ’ project, which identified what indicators work best for different farming systems and regions.
Visualising Australasia’s Soils
Led by Assoc Prof Pete Dahlhaus, Federation University with collaborations from Landcare Research New Zealand, University of Tasmania, University of Southern Queensland, Birchip Cropping Group, Burdekin Productivity Services, Central West Farming Systems, Gillamii Centre, Herbert Cane Productivity Services, Landmark, Liebe Group, Mackillop Farm Management Group, Mallee Sustainable Farming, North Central Catchment Management Authority, Riverine Plains Inc, Southern Farming Systems, WANTFA, Wimmera Catchment Authority.
Journal papers
Lai, Y., Ojeda, J., Clarendon, S., Robinson, N., Wang, E., Pembleton, K. (2025). Linking measurable and conceptual phosphorus pools (in APSIM) enables quantitative model initialization. Soil and Tillage Research, 251, doi.org/10.1016/j.still.2025.106532
Nodi, S.S., Paul, M., Robinson, N., Wang, L., Rehman, S.u., Kabir, M.A. (2025). Munsell Soil Colour Prediction from the Soil and Soil Colour Book Using Patching Method and Deep Learning Techniques. Sensors 25, 287. doi.org/10.3390/s25010287
Ollerenshaw, A., Dahlhaus, P., Thompson, H., & Staines, C. (2025). The Opportunities and Challenges Associated With Establishing a National Soil Data Repository From Public and Private Actors. Soil Use Manage, 41: e70075. doi.org/10.1111/sum.70075
Ollerenshaw, A., Thompson, H., Luke, H., Cooke, P., Best, D., Scholz, N., Fear, D., Craig, N., Telfer, J., Wright, A., & Kruger, S. (2025). The application of digital tools for knowledge sharing in agriculture: a longitudinal case study from four Australian grower groups. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, 230, 109843. doi.org/10.1016/j.compag.2024.109843
Robinson, N., Channon, J., Clarendon, S., & Medyckyj-Scott, D. (2025). Managing data in collaborative research starts with the researcher: A Soil CRC case study. Accountability in Research, 1–25. doi.org/10.1080/08989621.2025.2525878
Senanayake, I.P., Pathira Arachchilage, K.R.L., Yeo, I.-Y., Khaki, M., Han, S.-C., & Dahlhaus, P. (2024). Spatial Downscaling of Satellite-Based Soil Moisture Products Using Machine Learning Techniques: A Review. Remote Sensing, 16, 2067. doi.org/10.3390/rs16122067
Senanayake, I., Yeo, I-Y., Robinson, N., Dahlhaus, P., & Hancock, G. (2024). Identification of high-performing soil groups in grazing lands using a multivariate analysis method. Soil Security, doi.org/10.1016/j.soisec.2024.100163
Weir, P., & Dahlhaus, P. (2024). Beyond soil moisture probes: improving field scale soil moisture mapping. Discover Soil, 1(1). doi.org/10.1007/s44378-024-00025-0
Weir, P., & Dahlhaus, P. (2024). Merging weather radar and rain gauges for dryland agriculture. Journal of Southern Hemisphere Earth Systems Science 74, ES23023. doi.org/10.1071/ES23023
Nodi, S.S., Paul, M., Robinson, N., Wang, L., & Rehman, Su. (2023). Determination of Munsell Soil Colour Using Smartphones. Sensors, 23(6):3181. doi.org/10.3390/s23063181
Weir, P., & Dahlhaus, P. (2023). In search of pragmatic soil moisture mapping at the field scale: A review. Smart Agricultural Technology, 6, 100330. doi.org/10.1016/j.atech.2023.100330
Conferences
Senanayake I.P., Yeo I-Y., Han S-C., Hancock G.R., Dahlhaus P.G., & Robinson N.J. (2025). A Comparative Analysis of SMAP Satellite Soil Moisture and Farming Forecaster Probe Data, 2025 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS2025), 3 - 8 August 2025, Brisbane, Australia, 2025.ieeeigarss.org/
Pathira-Arachchilage K.R.L., Yeo I-Y., Han S-C., Khaki M., Senanayake I.P., Walker J.P., & Dahlhaus P.G. (2025). Improve Soil Moisture Estimation Using Land Cover Dynamics. 2025 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS2025), 3 - 8 August 2025, Brisbane, Australia, 2025.ieeeigarss.org/
Chadha, A., Robinson, N., & Ollerenshaw, A. (2024) Matching soil performance indicators to Australian farming systems. IUSS Centenary Conference, Florence, Italy.
Channon, J., Robinson, N., Medyckyj-Scott, D., Gacenga, F., & Splawa-Neyman, P. (2024). Shifting the Dial: Driving Culture Change in Research Data Management. AeRO 2024, Melbourne
Dahlhaus, P., MacLeod, A., Ollerenshaw, A., Robinson, N., Wong, M., Thompson, H., & Doyle, R. (2024). Visualising Australasia’s Soil (VAS): a novel soil research data federation. New Zealand Society of Soil Science and Soil Science Australia Conference 2024, Weaving soil science across cultures and environments, Rotorua, New Zealand, 2-5 December 2024.
Dahlhaus, P., MacLeod, A., Ollerenshaw, A., Robinson, N., Wong, M., Thompson, H., & Doyle, R. (2024). Creating a public-private soil data federation: the Visualising Australasia’s Soils project. Global Symposium on Soil Information and Data, Hybrid event, September 25-28, 2024, Nanjing, China.
Robinson, N., Chadha, A., Ollerenshaw, A., & Dahlhaus, P. (2024). Soil indicator choices in Australian farming systems. New Zealand Society of Soil Science and Soil Science Australia Conference 2024, Weaving soil science across cultures and environments, Rotorua, New Zealand, 2-5 December 2024.
Dahlhaus, P., MacLeod, A., Simons, B., Neyland, A., Wong, M., Milne, R., Gillett, H., & Robinson, N. (2023) The Visualising Australasia’s Soils project: towards a federation of public and private soil data. Our Soil: Spirit of a nation. 2023 Soil Science Australia Conference, Darwin, 25-30 June 2023. Oral Abstracts, p. 72. conference.soilscienceaustralia.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/2023-SSA-Oral-Abstract-Book.pdf
Dahlhaus, P., Ollerenshaw, A., Staines, C., Corbett, J., & Thompson, H. (2023) Assessing the impacts of creating a soil data and dissemination system. Our Soil: Spirit of a nation. 2023 Soil Science Australia Conference, Darwin, 25-30 June 2023. Oral Abstracts, p. 39. conference.soilscienceaustralia.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/2023-SSA-Oral-Abstract-Book.pdf
Wong, M., MacLeod, A., Simons, B., Robinson, N., Gillett, H., Neyland, A., Milne, R., Corbett, J., & Dahlhaus, P. (2021, July 5-6). Enabling soil data re-use for ecosystem management and decision making: A standards-based approach [Conference presentation]. TERN Science Symposium, Online.
Wong, M., MacLeod, A., Simons, B., Robinson, N., Gillett, H., Sexton, A., Medyckyj-Scott, D., Thompson, H., Neyland, A., Milne, R., Corbett, J., & Dahlhaus, P. (2021, July 19-23). Maximising the value of soil data: Challenges and solutions we employed. Focus: User cases of farming grower groups and Catchment Management Authorities [Conference presentation]. ESIP Summer Meeting, Online.
Robinson, N., Thompson, H., Dahlhaus, P., Feely, P., MacLeod, A., Wong, M., & Walters, J. (2019). What’s FAIR about Digital Agriculture? steeDA, Conference on science, technology, engineering and economics for Digital Agriculture, 3-5 December 2019, The University of Sydney, Australia.
Dahlhaus, P., Simons, B., Wong, M., MacLeod, A., & Robinson, N. (2018). Making soils data FAIR: Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable. SOIL: The key to the past, the present and the future. National Soils Conference, November 18th - 23rd, Canberra, Australia. Soil Science Australia.
Reports
Dahlhaus, P., MacLeod, A., Ollerenshaw, A., Gillett, H., Reynolds, A., Robinson, N., Wong, M., Thompson, H., MacEwan, R., Feely, P., Archer, R., Hartwig, K., Senanayake, I., & Yeo, I-Y. (2024). Visualising Australasia’s Soils: extending the soil data federation. Phase 2 (2021 - 2024). Project 2.3.002 Final Report. Cooperative Research Centre for High Performance Soils (Soil CRC). 126p.
Dahlhaus, P., MacLeod, A., Thompson, H., Ollerenshaw, A., Robinson, N., & MacEwan, R. (2024). Implementing private sector data sharing. Visualising Australasia’s Soils project. Milestone Report 13.1. Soil CRC Project 2.3.002. Cooperative Research Centre for High Performance Soils, Callaghan, NSW. 14p.
Dahlhaus, P., Macleod, A., Ollerenshaw, A., Gillett, H., Reynolds, A., Robinson, N., Wong, M., Thompson, H., MacEwan, R., Feely, P., Archer, R., Hartwig, K., Senanayake, I., & Yeo, I-Y. (2024). Visualising Australasia’s Soils: extending the soil data federation. Phase 2 (2021 - 2024). Project 2.3.002 Final Report. Cooperative Research Centre for High Performance Soils (Soil CRC). 128p.
MacLeod, A., Gillett, H., Simons, B., Wong, M., Reynolds, A., Martin, C., Archer, R., & Dahlhaus, P. (2024). Visualising Australasia’s Soils: Phase 2 System Architectures. Milestone Report 14.3. Soil CRC Project 2.3.002. Cooperative Research Centre for High Performance Soils, Callaghan, NSW. 51p. August 2024.
Ollerenshaw, A., Staines, C., Thompson, H., & Dahlhaus, P. (2024). Visualising Australasia’s Soils: Extending the soil data federation. Impact Research Report. Milestone Report 14.2. Soil CRC Project 2.3.002. Cooperative Research Centre for High Performance Soils, Callaghan, NSW. 35p. August 2024.
Luke, H., Cooke, P.R., Craig, N., Scholz, N., Ollerenshaw, A., Fear, D., Kruger, K., Telfer, J., Wright, A., Davenport, D., Fletcher, B., Birch, J., Thompson, H., Killham, S., & Angel, K. (2023). Soil CRC Final Report: Knowledge-Sharing for Good Soil Stewardship Project, 2023. Southern Cross University, NSW, 2480. ISBN: 978-0-6450707-8-1
Luke, H, Cooke, P.R., Craig, N., Scholz, N., Ollerenshaw, A., Fear, D., Kruger, S., Telfer, J., Wright, A., David Davenport, Birch, J., Thompson, H., Angel, K., & Kilham, S. (2023). Soil CRC Knowledge-Sharing Guide. Cooperative Research Centre for High Performance Soils, Callaghan. NSW, Australia. ISBN: 978-1-7635305-0-8
Ollerenshaw, A., & Thompson, H. (2023). Knowledge sharing for good soil stewardship: Digital Engagement Guide. Centre for eResearch and Digital Innovation, Federation University Australia. 30p.33p.
Dahlhaus, P., MacLeod, A., Medyckyj-Scott, D., Simons, B., Bahlo, C., Sexton, A., Thompson, H., Wong, M., Robinson, N., Milne, R., Neyland, A., Gillett, H., & Ollerenshaw, A. (2021) Visualising Australasia’s Soils: A Soil CRC Interoperable Spatial Knowledge System. Phase 1 (2019 – 2021). Project 2.3.001 Final Report. Cooperative Research Centre for High Performance Soils (Soil CRC). 119p. Visualising Australasia’s Soils (2.3.001) - Final Report (2021)
Sexton A. (2020) Visualising Australasia’s Soils: Social engagement and collaboration learning. Cooperative Research Centre for High Performance Soils (Soil CRC). 24p. Visualising Australasia’s Soils - Social engagement and collaboration learnings (2020)
Dahlhaus, P., Bennett, J.McL., Corbett, J., Crawford, D., Grelet, G., Imhof, M., MacLeod, A., Mele, P.M., Stevenson, B., Wells, N., & Wong, M. (May 2018) A review of indicators of soil health and function: farmers’ needs and data management . Final Project Report, Soil CRC Project 2.1.01 . Cooperative Research Centre for High Performance Soils.
Soil CRC Participants Conference - 24 September 2025
CeRDI was strongly represented at the recent Soil CRC Participants Conference held in Perth in late August... Continue reading...
Advancing Australia’s soil knowledge system – August 2025
The Soil CRC’s Visualising Australasia’s Soils (VAS) project began in 2019 to provide Soil CRC participants with access to data, information and knowledge on Australian and New Zealand soils. Continue reading ...
Dr Nathan Robinson to lead Program 2 of the Soil CRC – March 2025
The Soil CRC is pleased to announce that Dr Nathan Robinson from Federation University will step into the role of Program 2 Leader... Continue reading...
Soil CRC appointment: Dr Nathan Robinson, Program Leader - 10 July 2025
The Soil CRC recently announced that Dr Nathan Robinson has been appointed Program Leader for the Soil performance metrics research program... Continue reading...
Soil CRC: New appointments - 13 March 2025
The Soil CRC has recently appointed CeRDI's Distinguished Professor Helen Thompson to its Board of Directors.... Continue reading...
Federation University research showcased at Soil CRC Board meeting - 13 March 2025
Researchers and PhD candidates from Federation University showcased their Soil CRC research.... Continue reading...
Better understanding of within-field spatial variability of soil water – February 2025
Soil CRC PhD student Peter Weir began his career in irrigated horticulture... Continue reading ...
Visualising Australasia's Soils: Phase 3 - 17 December 2024
Earlier this year, the Cooperative Research Centre for High Performance Soils (Soil CRC) announced funding for Phase 3 of the VAS project... Continue reading...
Soil Indicators project: Phase 1 completed - 17 December 2024
The application of soil indicators within agriculture is widespread, but little is known about the factors farmers use to make decisions about soil indicators on their farms.... Continue reading...
Knowledge Sharing for Good Soil Stewardship - 17 December 2024
The Soil CRC has released a new guide to help grower groups and extension professionals plan their farmer engagement activities.... Continue reading...
Federation University receives $1.2m funding for soils research program – 28 June 2024
Federation University has been awarded $1.2m of funding from the Cooperative Research Centre for High Performance Soils (Soil CRC) to extend research programs... Continue reading ...
Visualising Australasia's Soils Phase 3 - 17 June 2024
CeRDI recently received confirmation that the Soil CRC will extend funding for VAS until 2027.... Continue reading...
Visualising Australasia's Soils: Extending the Soil Data Federation - 17 June 2024
The following story about VAS was featured in the April issue of the Soil CRC newsletter.... Continue reading...
Soil Indicators Project: Update - 17 June 2024
Soil indicators are observations, assessments and measurements used in agriculture to obtain essential information about soil.... Continue reading...
Enabling Soil Data: Research and Resource - 14 March 2024
The Managing and Enabling Soil Data project, an initiative between CeRDI and the Soil CRC... Continue reading...
Soil Indicators project: Making sense of soils - 21 December 2023
Farmers, agronomists and researchers are invited to participate in a project that looks at the factors influencing their decisions about soil indicators.... Continue reading...
Improved soil data management - 22 September 2023
The Managing and Enabling Soils Data project is an initiative of the Cooperative Research Centre for High Performance Soils (Soil CRC)... Continue reading...
Knowledge sharing for good soil stewardship - 22 September 2023
Dr Hanabeth Luke of Southern Cross University is leading the Soil CRC’s research effort to address challenges with sharing knowledge... Continue reading...
Managing and enabling soil data project - 10 March 2023
Dr Nathan Robinson is leading a research project that aims to develop guidelines, processes and policies that supports soil research data.... Continue reading...
Soil-Stewardship and knowledge sharing project - 10 June 2022
Soil is a fundamental resource on which much depends, and the careful and responsible management of soils (soil-stewardship) has an important role...... Continue reading...
Soil CRC funding success for CeRDI researchers - 16 September 2021
Three newly funded soil research projects will assist Australian farmers to better manage their soil for more profitable and productive farming.... Continue reading...
Soil CRC national participant meeting: Ballarat hub - 17 June 2021
Federation University was one of eight regional hubs involved in the recent Soil Cooperative Research Centre (Soil CRC) national participants meeting.... Continue reading...
Project to manage and enable soil data - 22 June 2020
CeRDI's Dr Nathan Robinson and colleagues were recently notified of funding success to develop a comprehensive online platform.... Continue reading...
Visualising Australasia's Soils Newsletter, March 2019 - 29 March 2019
The first Visualising Australasia's Soils project newsletter has been released.... Continue reading...
Major investment in soil projects - 21 March 2019
CeRDI's Nathan Robinson, Ben Wills and Megan Wong recently received news that three Cooperative Research Centres (CRC) program applications have been funded.... Continue reading...
Visualising Australasia's Soils: Off to a great start! - 21 March 2019
The 2-year project, funded by the Soil CRC, will create a web portal to access shared public and private soil datasets.... Continue reading...
Soil CRC: Investment for New Research - 23 January 2019
CeRDI has recently been successful in a major investment round for the Soil Co-operative Research Centre (CRC).... Continue reading...
Soil CRC Workshop - 17 June 2018
In March, Associate Professor Peter Dahlhaus facilitated the Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) workshop on Soil Performance Metrics.... Continue reading...
CeRDI leads scoping project for CRC High Performance Soils - 2 February 2018
CeRDI is leading a project examining the role and function of soil health and performance indicators used by farmers.... Continue reading...
Cooperative Research Centre bids involving Federation University progress to stage 2 - 26 October 2017
Federation University (Federation University) is a major participant in two of CRC bids invited to submit a full business case.... Continue reading...
Program 2 Featured Project 2025 - Visualising Australasia's Soils (12:25)
Associate Professor Peter Dahlhaus from Federation University presents on his Soil CRC research project, Visualising Australasia's Soils, which is contributing to a legacy of soil data in Australia. Recorded at the 2025 Soil CRC Participants Conference in Perth, Western Australia, on 27 August 2025.
Watch now
Soil CRC Program 2 Overview 2025 - Soil performance metrics (5:05)
Soil CRC Program 2 Leader Dr Nathan Robinson from Federation University gives an overview of Program 2, ‘Soil performance metrics’, at the 2025 Soil CRC Participants Conference. Recorded at the 2025 Soil CRC Participants Conference in Perth, Western Australia, on 27 August 2025.
Watch now
Soil CRC videos
Visualising Australasia's Soils - Ballarat Workshop 2019 (4:28)
Project kick-off workshop 11-14 February 2019 held at CeRDI, Federation University, Ballarat.
For more Soil CRC vidoes, visit the Soil CRC YouTube Channel
