On-Field Precision Experiment framework

What is the On Field Precision Experiment (OFPE) Framework?

Our research over the past 20 years has consistently indicated that crop response to inputs like fertilizers and herbicides are site specific in nature. Every field is different and most years are different. Therefore the OFPE takes advantage of modern technologies to conduct automated experiments on each field that will optimize the use of field-specific inputs based on maximizing farmer profits, minimizing pollution and maximizing long-term stability in profit (resilience). We are producing the tools that allow farmers to determine, on their own in the context of their crop rotation and production practices, the probability of management outcomes on each field given uncertainty in weather, prices received and costs of production. With modern monitoring technology we finally have the data at a scale that will allow us to build predictive models to inform ecologically-based agricultural management decisions.

We are capturing the unprecedented data stream available to agricultural producers by creating algorithms that manage the data and automate the process of conducting experiments, field by field. A farmer that has yield monitors, GPS and VRA capability can have experimental fertilizer and weed control treatments, variable crop seeding rates, and crop variety testing placed in their fields to objectively assess the economic response to these inputs. Perhaps more important, farm managers can build a database for each field that can be employed to simulate a range of economic and climate futures providing a basis for management under uncertainty and thus they can assess their agroecosystem resilience.

OFPE was initially funded by the Montana Research and Economic Development Initiative, the Montana Fertilizer Advisory Committee and continues to be funded by the Data Intensive Farm Management project at the University of Illinois to begin the process of creating an automated on-field experimentation system. See video: https://youtu.be/2_bdDTpKOwk