The Online Farm Trials (OFT) initiative was established in 2013 by the Grains Research and Development Corporation and the Centre for eResearch and Digital Innovation, Federation University Australia. A pilot project was undertaken in partnership with industry stakeholders and experts to understand the characteristics of existing trial research data and information, develop use cases based on user needs and preferences, establish a trial database and develop the first phase of interactive web-based research applications.
The OFT website was launched in 2014 with trials contributed by Liebe Group (WA), Northern Grower Alliance (Qld), Southern Farming Systems (Vic) and Birchip Cropping Group (Vic). Through ongoing engagement with the pilot group participants, wider collaboration with other research organisations, and regional partnerships (with Grower Group Alliance, Ag Excellence Alliance and the Victorian Grower Group Alliance), OFT has continued to expand trial research content and further improve user applications and functionality.
Longitudinal research commenced in 2015 by researchers at Federation University’s Centre for eResearch and Digital Innovation (CeRDI) to understand the impact of digital platforms such as OFT on decision making and practice change. This research combines quantitative and qualitative measures to determine how and why data is sought, how it is accessed, and the impact it has on creating evidence, shaping decisions and informing practice.
The first wave of longitudinal research was completed in 2016 with further data collection phases occurring to 2019, 2020 and 2021. This research documents the impact and role of OFT on industry-users, over time.
In 2023, in-depth interviews with industry leaders and innovation experts provided a unique perspective about the strengths, limitations, and opportunities of OFT. A new wave of research for OFT commenced in late 2024 to examine the role and impact of OFT from the perspective of OFT trials contributors.
The research findings have led to ongoing and wide-ranging upgrades to the portal, its technology implementation and content, with a focus on enhancing the OFT experience for users, contributors, and industry stakeholders. Reports and peer-reviewed journal publications deliver detailed insights about the impact of OFT, over time. These publications can be access from the Resources page of this website.
The integration of other relevant industry data with the contributed research trial information has been an important component of the technical development program from the beginning of the project. Built on an interoperable framework, OFT integrates data from sources such as the Bureau of Meteorology, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and Scientific Information for Landowners (SILO) and programmatically joining it with submitted trial data. Embeddable applications and a trial data API have also been developed to provide programmatic access to OFT hosted data and information in other applications and websites.
An expert advisory group was formed in 2017 to provide strategic industry guidance on the future development and role of OFT. Ongoing engagement with industry stakeholders and growers through workshops, industry events, surveys and interviews, training and collaboration with research providers also guides the development of OFT to ensure it meets user needs and preferences.
Eighty organisations across Australia contribute trials data to OFT ensuring the portal delivers systematised, on-farm and field-based trials data for Australia’s grain industry.
