OSCIA and OMAF Partner to Assist Growers to Conduct On-Farm Trials

At the OSCIA annual meeting in Niagara during early February, we announced a new system of promoting On-Farm Trials in Ontario. The process involves promotion of On-Farm Trials through the development of a system to share information on projects.

OSCIA Website

We have put in place on the OSCIA website, an area that will contain specific information on On-Farm Trials. Click on the "Field Projects & Protocols" tab. Here you will find information regarding On-Farm Trials.

Standardizing Protocols & Pooling Data

The purpose of this website and effort on behalf of On-Farm Trials, is to increase interest in conducting local, regional and provincial projects that will benefit the membership. In addition, we are trying to develop a system to synergize the efforts that are put into On-Farm Trials. By using standard protocols and being aware of different groups conducting similar projects, we can bring together all the data and hopefully capture more meaningful results through pooling data from a larger number of trials.

Standardized, simplified protocols also assist in ensuring that a project is conducted properly in terms of setup, implementation, data assessment and reporting. They are intended to be straightforward and clear. Hopefully this process and the identification of responsibilities of participants in a project will overcome some of the past issues of miscommunication that resulted in poor trials or results that did not have a high degree of confidence.

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Information Available

On the website you will find the following:

1. ICAT protocols, forms and resource information
Listing of project topics for Soil & Crop Improvement Associations
3. Standardized protocols for specific projects
Resource material on conducting high quality on-farm trials
General record keeping forms for on-farm trials
Links to other websites with information on on-farm trials
Tracking system for projects across the province (future feature)

ICAT Trials

Julie Williams, Provincial ICAT Coordinator, will provide information related to the ICAT project, including rational for the program, considerations for hybrid selection, field protocols, seed company and local SCIA ICAT Coordinator listings, etc. As the season progresses we will also have a listing of locations for ICAT plots within each county and any other important dates, tours, etc that may be conducted. As well, the standard plot protocol and record keeping forms will be available.

The plan is to further develop the site to include reports on regional summaries for the ICAT program in addition to local reports that will be provided in late fall. We have a new process in place on Ontario Field Trials Online to assist with reporting. Keep in mind though that reporting the results depends on the ICAT trial data being submitted as early as possible.

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Conducting On-Farm Trials

The remainder of the site is dedicated to assisting local SCIA's with all aspects of conducting On-Farm Trials. Included will be a continuously updated list of project ideas for locals to consider. If there is interest in a specific project, the group can look in the protocol section and download the appropriate protocol. If a standardized protocol for a specific project is not available, you will be able to respond back to OMAF to ask for a protocol to be written. Standard forms for trial record keeping will be there for your use.

There is a lot of resource material that can assist you in conducting On-Farm Trials. We will continue to update this information and keep it as current as possible.

Other jurisdictions have On-Farm Trial programs and you may find it interesting to see what they are involved in. Links to these sites will be available for you to use.

Project Tracking System

Eventually we want to have a project tracking system on the site. This would allow Local Project Coordinators, Regional Communication Coordinators or others to input the projects that are being conducted locally. This would include information on projects types, how many and where specific projects are being conducted on a local/regional basis. We can use this information to track projects and pull together results from similar projects conducted acorssthe the province. The OMAF people will then be able to conduct better analysis and reporting of the results for the benefit of all.

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Future Ideas

Further ideas being considered for the future include:

• On-line tracking of projects for broader coordination?
On-line reporting of results?
• Annual Provincial Projects Publication?
• Database for archiving data from local, regional and provincial projects?

Related Links

• Ontario Soil & Crop Improvement Association website

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