8.0 Project Coordination

This project will be administered through the office of Dr. M. Scott Smith, Associate Dean for Research in the College of Agriculture at the University of Kentucky.  The proposal was authored collectively by the Organization 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 6.10), Agronomy (Sub-Projects 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4, 6.6 and 6.7) and Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering (Sub-Projects 6.5, 6.8, 6.9, and 6.11).  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 three people to fulfill this need:  1) group coordinator, 2) a GIS expert, and 3) an economic analyst.  Originally, we intended to create each position at the full time, professional level.  But because of a roughly 13% budget cut, some adjustments were necessary.  The group coordinator position will be shared between this project and the Kentucky Senate Bill 271 Water Quality Project.  The GIS expert and economic analyst will be graduate research positions.  The three positions will be accountable to the Precision Agriculture Steering Committee (PASC).  Each will have a day-to-day supervisor appointed by the PASC.  Their work is not to benefit any specific individual, department, or project but rather to 1) fulfill the responsibilities of their position description; and 2) to serve researchers funded under the precision agriculture funding.  The specific responsibilities are as are listed.

Group Coordinator - A group coordinator is needed to 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.

GIS Expert - The person selected to fill this position will develop and maintain a precision agriculture spatial database and assist UK College of Agriculture personnel engaging in precision agriculture research, teaching, and extension activities for the benefit of Kentucky agriculture.  Oversight and direction for the person filling this position will rest with the PA Committee.  Further, this person will be responsible for compiling spatial databases for 15 farms in Kentucky. These records will include yield maps, cropping and management histories, and economic data.  In addition, public data sources (e.g. digital soil maps, Tiger data, digital orthophoto quadrants, digital elevation models, digital raster graphics, weather data) will be added as appropriate.  This individual will also be responsible for archiving data from other sources to supplement data provided by the cooperators (e.g. satellite imagery, field boundaries, soil fertility data, soil conductivity measurements, weed maps).

The GIS expert will develop automated tools for spatial data analyses.  These tools will be made available through extension publications and via Internet for UK researchers and extension specialists working in precision agriculture, to UK students, and to Kentucky producers and agribusiness.  These analyses will include the generation of profit maps, the determination of spatial relationships between yield or profit maps and soil type data, terrain information, or other measures (e.g. soil fertility and conductivity data).  This individual's responsibilities include providing technical assistance to enhance precision agriculture research, education and extension activities.  This may include training (digitizers) or the development of useful programs for analysis (e.g. AML, Avenue, Map Basic, Map Objects).  This person will interact with faculty and researchers to assist in project development that will improve the spatial database or have a direct benefit to the farmers of Kentucky.   This person will distribute GIS software media (e.g. ARC/VIEW and ARC/INFO) and provide installation assistance for those involved in precision agriculture research and educational efforts.    This person will also maintain on the web server a database of public domain spatial data for the state of Kentucky (tiger file data, digital soils data, roads data, digital orthophoto quadrents) saved in a common coordinate system (geographic).  We expect to hire this individual at the M.S. level with experience in spatial analysis and GIS software (i.e. ESRI).  We would prefer that this person have experience with remote sensing and remote sensing software.

The work of this person is expected to benefit the producers in Kentucky, researchers and extension personal in many agricultural disciplines (e.g. agricultural economics, agronomy, agricultural engineering, rural sociology), and the UK student body.  Deliverables will include: 1) precision agriculture spatial database for Kentucky (Data Warehouse); 2) automated tools for spatial data analyses (i.e. profit maps, the determination of spatial relationships between yield or profit maps and soil type data, terrain information, or other measures); 3) technical assistance to enhance precision agriculture research, education, and extension activities; and 4) public domain spatial data for the state of Kentucky (tiger file data, digital soils data, roads data, digital ortho-photo quadrents) saved in a common coordinate system.

            Economic Analyst - This infrastructure position is intended to facilitate baseline economic analysis for many of the precision agriculture projects as possible.  A full-time research specialist with a M.S. degree in Agricultural Economics will be hired in order to conduct evaluation of the profitability associated with the alternative practices and technologies being considered within individual projects.  All participants in the overall project requiring an economic analysis component to their research will have access to this individual on a first-come first-serve basis.  The individual will be responsible for enterprise budgeting, partial budgeting, expense estimation and, potentially, risk management analysis and optimization procedures as required.  The individual will also be responsible for written and oral communication of economic components of precision agricultural research associated with the project.