Increase yield, decrease use of resources
New technologies, procedures and methods of production should increase the efficiency and thus the profit for agriculture. The introduction of these is, however, connected to an unknown risk. In order to minimise this risk it makes sense to try out the new methods on a sub-area; an efficient method for this being on-farm research.
One field = one research field
The term On-Farm Research (OFR) stems from international agricultural research. It describes, in a wide sense, the implementation of agricultural field trials on a farm level with the farmer’s participation. In this case, OFR is talking about carrying out trials in agricultural businesses with the help of precision farming technologies.
How does it work in practice?
On farm research is carried out in large areas on normally farmed fields. Unlike trials on small parcels, the heterogeneity of the location is integrated into the trial in order to keep the results practice-based. The influence of external growth factors that occur here makes the evaluation of the data, as well as the interpretation of the trial’s results more difficult. With the help of sensor technology and other measuring instruments, some of these measurements, such as the electronic conductivity of the soil, the geographic height as well as the heterogeneity of the location can be recorded without much more effort and included in the evaluation. Due to the high spatial resolution of the data the farmer obtains here further information, which help him/her to improve his/her production techniques.
From Agri Con’s point of view an OFR trial is based on the following principles:
- The trial areas are repeated and arranged randomly
- The sub-areas should be arranged along the vehicle lanes
- The trial should include an area of at least 30ha
- The harvest is carried out over the whole area using a machine equipped with a mapping system
The planning, layout and implementation of an OFR trial is not that much work and can be carried out by an arable farm on its own equipped with modern technology. The evaluation of the data, however, requires knowledge of Geostatistics and the programming of the appropriate software.
The complete programme
In the last 10 years Agri Con has carried out over 250 OFR trials. Various aspects were tested here such as procedures and technology of the specific sort of agriculture, as well as various crop varieties, fertilisation and herbicides/ pesticides. Agri Con worked together with its partners on the development, trial and introduction of further sensors and measurement technologies, with which precision farming and on-farm research can become more competitive.
If you are also interested in trying out new products before introducing them into your farm, Agri Con would be pleased to help you.