Supporting the development of standardised on-farm experimentation approaches in the Northern Region

WHY THIS PROJECT IS NEEDED 

On-farm experimentation (OFE) is a powerful tool to trial new crop varieties, management techniques, and agricultural technologies under real farming conditions. It allows us to test ideas locally with relevant variability across soil, climate, and production systems, to see first-hand whether a change will be worthwhile. 

This project aims to develop methods that can improve the quality of data from on-farm trials, using commercial-scale precision agriculture machinery and software to capture variability across paddocks and seasons. The project will establish standardised approaches, validate them at paddock scale, and build the skills of growers, advisors and industry groups to design, deliver, and interpret on-farm experiments, enabling confident adoption and scaling of effective farming practices. 

This project supports the development and adoption of standardised approaches for paddock-scale on-farm experimentation in NSW, improving the value, consistency, and usability of results for farmers and advisors.

Results from on-farm trials can also vary in quality, making it harder to compare data between farms, seasons, or regions; this inconsistency can limit the value of on-farm results. This project aims to tackle that challenge head-on by working with farmers, advisers, and researchers to collect robust, high-quality data, delivering results that are comparable and useful beyond an individual farm. 

By creating and testing standardised protocols in real farm settings, the project will: 

• Give farmers, advisors, researchers and agritech businesses greater confidence in their commercial-scale results. 
• Enable better sharing of information between farms, regions, and industries. 
• Help research organisations and industry bodies identify patterns, opportunities, and challenges more effectively. 
• Ultimately, support smarter, faster, and more profitable decision-making on farms. 

Project Focus 

The focus of this project is to increase confidence in the delivery and outcomes of on-farm experiments across growers, advisors, and applied researchers across the Northern Region. 

From 2025 onwards, local trials will be run to test and improve standardised protocols for on-farm experimentations, de-risk the delivery of these experiments, and increase confidence in using the results to support on-farm decision making.   

Specifically, the project will focus on: 

• Standardised approaches and protocols: Develop and test consistent methods, data requirements, and guidelines for running commercial scale on-farm experimentation. 
• Building industry capacity and capability: Use hands-on trials to train service providers and farmers, sharing lessons through workshops and resources. 
• Delivering localised trials: Select priority issues and sites, run trials with participating farmers, and use results to refine trial design, analysis, and reporting. 
• Financial analysis: Compare the costs and benefits of on-farm experimentations against small plot trials to show the value for growers, industry, and GRDC.