8.0 Project Coordination

This project will be administered through the office of Dr. M. Scott Smith, Dean, College of Agriculture at the University of Kentucky.  The proposal was collectively authored by the Organizing Committee, as specified in Section 3.0, with input from cooperating researchers and extension personnel in the College of Agriculture (Section 3.0).  Central to the focus of this project is the dissemination of research findings directly to Kentucky producers and service providers via the Cooperative Extension Service, and to other researchers in the U.S. and around the world via peer reviewed journals.  Cooperating investigators will be required to report the progress of there work on an annual basis in both written and oral form to colleagues, students, administrators, producers, service providers and interested government agencies at a conference on precision agriculture. 

The budget will be allocated and managed at the departmental level within the University of Kentucky Research Foundation.  Specifically, the funds will be allocated as follows: Agricultural Economics (Sub-Project 6.8, 6.9 and 6.10), Agronomy (Sub-Projects 6.1 and 6.2) and Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering (Sub-Projects 6.4, 6.5, 6.6, and 6.7).  Section 9.0 contains detailed budget sheets identify the allocation of funds by sub-project.  Reporting requirements will be handled through the CRIS reporting structure and will be consistent with this format and timing.

To facilitate sharing of data, and to foster cooperative planning efforts, the cooperating researchers will meet four times annually, including the above referenced conference, to review project progress.  At these times the Advisory Board, as identified in Section 3.0, will be invited to provide feedback to the researchers concerning the nature of the work being conducted and the applicability to production in Kentucky.

A project of this size and scope requires a great coordination and sharing of resources.  We have proposed to hire a full-time coordinator.  The person in this position will be accountable to the Precision Agriculture Steering Committee (PASC).  Further, this person will have a day-to-day supervisor appointed by the PASC.  While the work of this individual will not benefit a specific individual, department, or project; but rather this person will: 1) fulfill the responsibilities of their position description; and 2) serve researchers funded under the precision agriculture funding.

More specifically the group coordinator will assist an interdisciplinary team of research and extension faculty within the UK College of Agriculture as they explore new opportunities for Kentucky producers provided by precision agriculture technologies. The potential of these technologies is great; however, they have not been critically evaluated on many Kentucky farms.  Furthermore, there is a need for decision aids for management of field variability and standards and protocols for Kentucky producers to collect, assess, and utilize spatial and temporal data.

            A group coordinator will facilitate the dissemination of results. Results of the field activities will be summarized and presented to producers at field days within the state.  Scientific reports will be prepared and presented at regional, national and international professional meetings.  Findings from these efforts will be incorporated into extension bulletins and publications that will be assembled into a handbook that will be made available for distribution to farmers, service providers, crop advisors, and extension agents.  Results will be utilized to aid in the development of economic decision support tools for selected projects.  The group coordinator will work with the voluntary advisory board that consists of three producers, three representatives from the service provider industry, two extension agents for agriculture, one farm analysis specialist, a state soil conservationist and a representative from the Kentucky Department of Agriculture.  By design, this relatively small group was chosen to represent each of the major grain producing regions in the state.  These folks will meet periodically throughout the year with all researchers to hear research results, provide guidance to existing projects and future efforts, and share their experiences and observations with precision agriculture applications in their region of the state.

            Project activities will be enhanced through the hiring a coordinator to provide continuity to the multi-faceted project.  The duties of this individual will include: 1) call and organize periodic meetings of the advisory board; 2) call and organize periodic meetings of the project participants; 3) assist with field trials, especially those that involve multiple projects at the same location that require coordination of efforts by host cooperators and researchers; 4) communicate with all researchers in the PA group to keep them informed of research progress; 5) develop and maintain a web site to support this project; 6) assist with and coordinate the assembly of special publications for the PA handbook; 7) identify projects that may be enhanced by closer working relationships with cooperators and researchers or between researchers to avoid pitfalls that may arise during the study; 8) help identify new projects that could be incorporated into related multi-disciplinary efforts with additional funding; 9) communicate with counterparts in other states or with regional projects to track progress of related studies; 10) plan and develop periodic PA conferences; and 11) identify and communicate PA grant opportunities to project participants.  The educational/background requirement for this position include a B.S. in an agricultural discipline, M.S. in Agricultural Engineering, Agronomy or Agricultural Economics, broad based/multidisciplinary agricultural knowledge and precision agriculture experience preferred.