WWW-based Management Tools for Soybean Farmers -
ITCS - AIM Lab, College of ACES, University of Illinois
OVERVIEW
This is a project to build a suite of web-based farm management tools for soybean farmers. It is funded by the Illinois Soybean Operating Board and managed by the Foundation for Agronomic Research (FAR). Three modules are under development: PK MAN, MEY Analysis, and the Soybean Farmer's Handbook. Chris Hewes is the creator of the JAVA-based "spreadsheet object" that is the basis for the three modules and is lead programmer. Ben Schroeder is the assistant programmer for the project.
"PK MAN" is nutrient optimization software developed by the Potash and Phosphate Institute and the Foundation for Agronomic Research. "MEY Analysis" is crop analysis software also developed by the Potash and Phosphate Institute and the Foundation for Agronomic Research. Online versions of this software will lead to a dramatic scaling of the distribution and usage of this software, including international distribution. In addition it will be possible to dynamically modify the software as necessary to permit fine-tuning of functionality without need to re-distribute hundreds of disks.
The Soybean Farmer's Handbook will be an online handbook that provides decision aids for routine calculations normally performed by hand, calculator or by disk-based software. This project will involve coordination with the extension and crop science departments of several states to bring together the best of the paper-based decision aids into a web-based module. Initially we will be working with Purdue and Iowa State as well as Illinois to arrange and compile a suitable set of decision aids.
As time allows, several additional projects are possible under this sub-contract such as the further development of the Composite Image Viewer as a tool for farmer viewing of field data layers via the Web. In addition, it is hoped that AIM Lab can aid in the web-accessibility of data from ADCOM and other weather station projects underway in the area. Finally, it is hoped that this suite will not only function as a stand-alone module for PPI/FAR/ISOB uses, but also in the Cyberfarm System developed by the CCnet Agribusiness Committee in conjunction with the INFO AG Conference series. It is also hoped that this project will be viewed as a component of NCSA/ACES collaborative projects soon to be underway, for purposes of cross-fertilization and leveraging.
EVALUATION
This work will be evaluated by local and regional farmers as part of a USB project, "Evaluation of Site-Specific Precision Farming System for Soybeans." Coordination of this evaluation and cooperation will be overseen by the Soybean Industry-endowed chair in Agricultural Strategy, College of ACES, University of Illinois.
TIMELINE
Start Date Jan 1st, 1997
Completion of Beta versions INFO AG '97
Refinement and Evalution Fall 1997
Completion of Full-release versions Jan 1st, 1998