P2103364: AHDB Smart Arable Farms: Research input into the design and assessment of farmer-led on-farm trials

Background

AHDB Farm Excellence is a channel for integrating farmers and their businesses into the wider AHDB Research and Knowledge Exchange (KE) programmes. Across AHDB sectors, we work with an extensive scope of agricultural businesses. We have inspirational farmers opening their doors to others to learn, share and create new ideas to drive innovation and increase productivity.

AHDB Smart Arable Farms, based in Scotland, demonstrate new ways of working in a commercial setting. The programme, which is centred on AHDB Arable Business Groups (ABGs) demonstrates relevant research through a series of trials and demonstrations in addition to knowledge exchange events to share the results with the wider industry. To ensure that this project is focused on farmers, Smart Arable Farms operate at a local parish level and trial ideas are “farmer-led and farmer-driven”. The group of farmers has control over the direction of the project, the decision making and how the project budget is spent.

The project is designed to help the farmers who are directly involved at a parish level, but also other farmers to assess the possibility of changing approaches on their farms using knowledge transfer (KT), KE, and Communication. Using Farmbench, and working with Julie Clark (Knowledge Exchange Manager (Benchmarking - Scotland), all of the trials are subject to full cost-benefit analysis.

Smart Arable Farms are facilitated by Chris Leslie, Arable Knowledge Exchange Manager (Scotland).

Aim

AHDB wishes to commission the design, assessment, and analysis of on-farm trials at the Angus Smart Arable Farm group for harvest 2021, on up to 10 farms.

Research partnership approach

Joint proposals from two or more contractors are acceptable and encouraged where there is an added value. AHDB may, if it is deemed desirable, request applicants to form a consortium to work together. There should be one organisation designated as the lead organisation for the Partnership that is responsible for project management and delivery. The group size should be manageable. Prospective partnerships can comprise both research institutes and industrial partners, be multi-disciplinary, and draw on a range of research experience for several crops. Therefore, the group does not necessarily need to have a history of working together previously. Priority will be given to the applicants with joint proposals demonstrating added value and with in-kind and or cash funding from the industry.

Yield Enhancement Network (YEN)

The participants in Smart Arable will also be members of the Yield Enhancement Network (YEN) project. AHDB Cereals & Oilseeds is one of the sponsors for the YEN which aims to help farmers to understand yields by regarding growing crops as converters of solar energy  into edible energy. The project helps farmers to analyse their crop performance and identify any limiting factors. 

The approach is to consider the yield potential of the season and compare it to the actual yield achieved. In doing so, farmers can understand the crop development, the basic available resources (light energy & water), and its success in capturing these and using them to form grain.  

The trials that will be conducted as part of Smart Arable will also be entered into the YEN. The cost for this will be covered separately by AHDB but you should consider the analysis that the YEN provides and ensure that any proposed methodologies are complementary to the project.

Project duration and budget

Proposals for this call should provide detailed costs for the period 1 April 2021 – 1 November 2021.

The earliest date of commencement for work funded in this call will be 1 April 2021.

Completion and submission of the application form

All applicants should complete Sections 1, 3, 4, and 5 of the application form for projects under £50,000 using the AHDB Research and KE Application Form – Full Proposal Small, referring to the guidance notes to aid completion. 

Applications are made based on the AHDB research funding agreement and any organisation receiving funding shall comply with the terms and conditions specified in the Contract. AHDB will not be held responsible for any expenses or losses incurred by applicants in the preparation of an application(s).

Completed application forms should be submitted to research@ahdb.org.uk no later than 09:00 on 29 March 2021.

Proposed timings for application and overall project delivery

Once the successful applicant has been notified, a kick-off meeting will be arranged for the week beginning Monday 5 April 2021. This meeting will take place online using Microsoft Teams. The meeting will be facilitated by Chris Leslie. The aim of the meeting will be for the farmers to discuss their ideas for the trial and for the successful applicant to begin to design the trial protocol, including layout and assessments.

Monthly project meetings will be held online using MS Teams and data collected up to this date should be provided to AHDB and the farmers for each trial location.

Project management

This project will be managed by a project committee comprising representatives of the successful applicant, AHDB staff, host farmers, and other suitably qualified individuals (determined by AHDB). The successful applicant must appoint a trial manager for the day-to-day management of the project and must provide evidence in their application that these individuals have suitable experience.

The successful applicant must draw up a protocol for the trials which should be shared with the project committee before work begins.

Records and data handling All paper and electronic records must be kept as per the contractor’s procedures. Data should be recorded appropriately and supplied to AHDB at the end of the project along with a final project report.

Procedures in the event of delays If prolonged adverse conditions result in delays of over 7 days, notify the AHDB Knowledge Transfer Manager promptly.

Risk assessment The contractor must supply a risk assessment for the trial to cover all elements of the work and that are compliant with industry regulations.

Assessment of Proposals

All submitted proposals will be reviewed by cross-sector research and KE representatives within AHDB, using the AHDB Standard Assessment Criteria. The selection will be an open and fair competition according to AHDB’s procurement policy, which complies with EU state aid rules.

Knowledge Exchange (KE)

The successful contractor may be required to contribute KE. Platform presentations at AHDB events may be required and the successful contractor must be able to provide suitably qualified people to speak at these events and show evidence of their experience of speaking to grower audiences. Attendance at events will be paid at a day rate plus expenses (see below) and the costs should not be included in the contractor’s proposal.

The successful contractor will be required to provide AHDB with content for Arable Scotland Event. The costs, including the time required, for this must be included within the proposal submission and these costs should be indicated separately. Final reports should be provided to AHDB by 1 November 2021.

The successful contractor may also be expected to contribute towards the preparation of publications, updates, and blog posts related to the project as required on an ad-hoc basis. This will include providing commentary on project results, and sense checking.

Presentations of material at events not requested by and/or directly supported by AHDB will not be funded by AHDB but must be cleared with AHDB in advance.

Current AHDB day rates and expenses for presenters at AHDB events: speaker day rate of £475 + VAT. Receipts (originals or copies) must be provided for all expenses claimed. Expenses authorised whilst engaged on business on behalf of AHDB.

• Travel
  • (Business mileage 45p/mile)
• Subsistence
  • Evening meal – up to £28.00 per person, inclusive of VAT
  • Other meals – up to £10.00 per person, inclusive of VAT
• Accommodation
  • maximum of £160 for London and any other capital city inclusive of VAT
  • maximum of £110 per night elsewhere inclusive of VAT
• Other reasonable out of pocket expenses incurred

Questions and Answers

If you have specific questions relating to this call, please email research@ahdb.org.uk. All questions and answers will be anonymised and published. As part of the open tender process, AHDB cannot discuss specific programme details before proposal submission. 

Details of call

The Angus Smart Arable Farm group consists of 10 farms located in Angus. We envisage the farmer-led trials to be carried out on a tramline scale on a selected number of farms dependant on farmer uptake within the locality.

The group has two areas of interest that they would like to investigate in on-farm trials: 

1. Spring barley establishment in reduced tillage – getting barley away in the spring in a cover crop/ no-till/ min-till scenario. Ensuring that spring crops can access the optimum amount of nutrients, at the right time, is critical. Whilst cover crops have been shown to benefit spring crop establishment by providing soils with weather resilience, farmers are looking to understand how they influence nutrient availability at different times in the growing season. 

2. Reduced nitrogen inputs on wheat. The group of farmers would like to know how they can reduce nitrogen inputs on wheat using Brix meters and tissue analysis

The scope of these trials is purposefully broad to ensure that the thoughts and ideas of the farmers can be captured and cultivated during the kick-off meeting. Following the kick-off meeting, the successful applicant will need to produce an on-farm protocol that will be agreed upon with the farmers.

Proposals should therefore include details relating to harvest 2021 trials, including:

• Links to existing or previous research projects on the topics outlined above

• The draft protocol for the farmers to consider at the kick-off meeting, including schedule and timing of treatments and assessments

• Indicative cost of measurements and analysis

• Details of laboratories to be used for sample analysis

• A detailed schedule of payments against project milestones

• Details of previous experience and work in this field, to include scientific and technical expertise of the staff involved in the project

• Availability of speaker at AHDB Knowledge Exchange events during the project

• The successful applicant will be required to provide monthly trial diaries and farmer update to the group via MS Teams (approx. 1-hour meeting online)

• The successful applicant will also be required to provide AHDB with monthly trial diaries and final reports for all trials using a template provided by AHDB, to include methodology, analysis, and interpretation of the final results