— 16 IREC Farmers' Newsletter No. 201 — Autumn 2019 — 16 IREC Farmers’ Newsletter No. 201 — Autumn 2019 Getting the most out of ag data A new project will investigate on-farm data management, to understand what is limiting its use in irrigation farming systems, and what would enhance its use. The project is a partnership between IREC and I-AG Pty Ltd and the activity has received grant funding from the Australian Government Department of Agriculture and Water Resources. PART 1 of the project will develop case studies designed to expose and highlight the difficulties growers face in their quest to adopt precision agriculture into their current farming process. Using this information, best practices will be defined and a process guide document will be developed as a reference for growers in their quest to use on-farm data. Part 2 of the project focuses on the implementation of a tailored precision agriculture adoption process. The case study group consists of eight irrigation farmers from the Murrumbigee area with varying levels of adoption of precision agriculture and data management capabilities. The farmers participated in a recorded interview using a baseline set of questions for all participants. An audit of machinery used was also conducted, to determine the ranged and current level of machinery hardware and software capabilities. Some of the common elements extracted from the interviews were: l  the apparent knowledge gap within the machinery dealership network relating to the capabilities and integration of product l  the lack of easily accessible support l  the data knowledge gap, file compatibility l  the lack of suitable back-end map generation and prescription generation software l  conflicting information from social and mainstream media, advisors and agronomy l  the lack of contractor capabilities/responsibilities to provide good data l  data standardisation issues. Part 1 of the project is near completion and a full case study report is being written at the time of publication. A big thank you to the case study group for your time and your honest and at times entertaining interviews. Without you this could never been achievable. One interesting outcome of note is THE VALUE PROPOSITION, what is it? A statement was created by the so-called experts in this field to explain the lack of data generation and precision agriculture adoption in our country. In short, the statement suggests that farmers do not see the value in data therefore have not moved forward in their adoption of precision agriculture. The case study clearly proves that this philosophy is simply wrong. Each of our case study growers gave up their time and were willing to invest in the process because they do see value in data. The elements listed above are to blame here, not the farmers’ commitment to the betterment of their operation. While agricultural data is readily collected, the case study identified many factors that limit the use of the data in farm operations. Credit: Iva Quarisa