DIFM (Data-Intensive Farm Management Program) uses precision agriculture technology, with researchers and farmers working together conducting large-scale, on-farm “checkerboard” field trials, gathering vast amounts of data on how crop yields respond to input application rates, field characteristics, and weather. DIFM is funded by a grant from the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service Innovation Grants (CIG) On-Farm Conservation Innovation Trials. The goal of DIFM is to revolutionize farm management, working with farmers and crop consultants to implement scientific experiments on their own farms, enabling them to increase profits by making data-driven management decisions. The farmer conducted on-farm trials are part of a system that includes development of software that farmers and consultants can use to design and analyze data from their on-farm experiments.

This research was funded in part by a United States Department of Agriculture—National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA—NIFA) Food Security Program Grant (Award Number 2016-68004-24769) and by United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) -Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC), Conservation Innovation Grants On-Farm Conservation Innovation Trials (Award Number USDA-NRCS-NHQ-CIGOFT-20-GEN0010750).