College of Agriculture > Research and Graduate Education > Agriculture Research Services > Transform > Findable and accessible research farm data

Findable and accessible research farm data

Purdue Agricultural Centers (PACs) across the state of Indiana collect many different types of data every year at both field and smaller research trial scales. The amount of historic data generated from each of these PACs is substantial, especially with the usage of precision management equipment that generates high-resolution data related to agronomic operations. These data could potentially help answer several important questions in regard to changing climate, management practices, and cultivars. However, these legacy data are either not easily accessible and/or interpretable due to several challenges such as lack of standard data archival practices and large volume. To address this problem, worked with Alex Helms and Joel Wahlman from Southeast Purdue Ag Center to export, describe, and aggregate data from the PACs backed up on SMS Advanced software program. The project aim was to build a workflow and infrastructure that makes these farm data accessible to College of Agriculture community.

Current steps

  • Exported data from proprietary SMS Advanced software
  • Developed a pipeline for describing and validating data using Frictionless Data open-source library
  • Extracted and defined keywords for filters
  • Provided basic statistics about data
  • Maintain and host a PACs database on Geddes cloud computing platform at Purdue RCAC
  • Publish a searchable catalog so the College of Agriculture community can explore PACs data: https://ads-pacshiny.geddes.rcac.purdue.edu/

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