Hi Dorn,
I read through your tool and took notes as I went. I wonder if these might be helpful to other folks who aren't coming from deeply technical backgrounds. Of course, I'm coming from my own particular background so it might not help everyone. Does this sound right though?
- RJ
Problem: The practice of agriculture is not mainly limited by the resources available but by the knowledge of how to use the resources available. Adaptive management is a process of learning from what you try in a physical location to improve outputs. Theoretically, the more information you collect, the more knowledge we can apply to optimize the use of available resources.
Proposal summary: Combine into one software system (may be many pieces of software), farm project management and automated data collection. Then build functionality into the software tools that will both help computers make better decisions about farm planning as well as tools to help peoplel make better decisions about farm planning.
A while back I wrote up some ideas on a similar system. It was inspired by Abe Collin's presentation on Grow Clean Water. It's a lofty goal but something cool to aim for.
When we integrate ... - Project management, per field/facility, what particular people/objects need to do when with what equipment (includes automation schedules) - Budget management - Equipment inventory/management - Automated and manually entered environmental data
We can do ... - Smarter computer generated Nutrient Management suggestions - automated generation of reports for taxes and certifications - alerts when trouble is brewing