Output 1: By October 2025 the coordinating organisation, growers to be involved, and consulting agronomists have been selected

A coordinating organisation will be contracted first and be responsible for the overall program. The coordinating organisation will be responsible for:

a) conducting an EOI to attract consulting agronomists who must nominate more than 5 but less than 10 growers who have expressed an interest and agreed to being part of the program

b) in collaboration with GRDC staff (Accountable manager and GRM’s) select consulting agronomists from the pool of applicants (consultants), based on experience, value for money including number of growers, hectares and geographic spread

c) prepare and execute sub-contracts for preferred consulting agronomist

d) undertake M&E for the program including attitude shifts of perceived barriers to entry of participating growers.

e)  utilising their own economist or contracting the services of an economist to undertake detailed analyses of the implementation of VRT by the growers (minimum of 36). Nutrient use efficiency will be calculated relative to the application of a uniform rate of fertiliser application. Nutrient use efficiency will be calculated using measures such as IE, internal efficiency (IE), recovery efficiency (RE), partial factor productivity (PFP) and partial nutrient budgets (PNB). Implications for on farm carbon accounting must also be estimated for each participating farm.

GRDC and the coordinating organisation would jointly develop the EOI and promote the opportunity using a range of communication avenues. To be eligible, consulting agronomists must be experienced in producing variable rate prescription maps and have capacity to assist growers using the maps in the machine of their choice. Consultants would also assist growers in getting as-applied fertiliser data and yield data from their respective equipment. Consulting agronomists would identify and nominate interested growers who have not adopted VRT on their farms but meet technical criteria such as having seeding and/or spreading machinery equipped for VRT and a combine harvester equipped for yield mapping. Agronomists will assist growers in utilising prescription maps during seeding and/or spreading. Growers must have nominated a paddock and have agreed to work with the consultant, for the duration of the project.

Output 2: By January 2028 two seasons of VRT application are completed, input data recorded, and yield data obtained.for each participating grower

Consultants will help growers identify management zones for the paddocks they have selected. Consultants will then develop prescription maps in conjunction with growers and assist them in implementing them during seeding and top dressing operations. Consultants will assist growers in display setup and obtaining as-applied maps subsequent to the relevant operation. Consultants will also assist growers in collecting yield data for the paddock from their combine harvester. Consultants will also obtain records of input costs for each paddock to facilitate economic and carbon accounting analysis. These data sets will be provided to the coordinating organisation. To ensure wide reach of the project a detailed media communications plan will be developed by the coordinating organisation in collaboration with the GRDC comms team. This journey of management zone creation, prescription mapping and yield mapping will be followed and communicated extensively using avenues such as social media platforms, social videos (eg YouTube), podcasts, and GRDC publications (potentially a special supplement). Up to three growers from each region will be followed using higher quality video production. Consulting agronomists will be asked to host field walks in collaboration with the selected growers. This will enable growers to share their experience of implementing VRT widely with their peers as the process unfolds. Consulting agronomists will also be asked to follow up with the selected growers one year after they have stopped directly supporting growers.

Output 3: By June 2028, detailed economic analysis of individual grower's application and yield data to assess impact of variable rate technology

As-applied and yield data gathered by consultants will be analysed to assess the economic change of using a variable rate approach to nutrient application relative to what would have resulted from a uniform rate approach. Nutrient use efficiency will be calculated using measures such as IE, internal efficiency (IE), recovery efficiency (RE), partial factor productivity (PFP) and partial nutrient budgets (PNB). Implications for on farm carbon accounting must also be estimated for each participating farm. Input costs recorded by growers and collated by consultants will be provided for the economic analysis. The results of the economic analysis will be communicated to a wider audience using social media platforms and GRDC publications.

Output 4: By October 2025 the coordinating organisation, have developed and implemented a monitoring and evaluation program for the duration of the project

Annual Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) will be conducted to determine progress of the 36 growers in terms of project outcomes and outputs. The coordinating organisation will establish a M&E baseline of participating growers, such as grower age (range), farming enterprise size, equipment setup and perceived barriers to adoption. A reporting template provided by the coordinating organisation to consulting agronomists, will record details of progress growers are making towards VRT adoption along with media and extension activity undertaken.

M&E Details:

• By February 2026 a baseline report using participating grower information and views to VRT implementation and/or perceived barriers to entry. * Consulting agronomists will be asked to collect both qualitative and quantitative data from participating growers. Quantitative data will include aspects such equipment type, paddock boundary accuracy, GPS positioning accuracy, practicing controlled traffic farming, paddock history for selected paddock, fertiliser costs and soil amelioration costs. Qualitative data collected needs to consider the “how and why” of VRT adoption and any real or perceived barriers to adoption.
• Analysis will develop concepts around barriers and constraints to adoption and propose interventions to overcome barriers over the course of the project.
• M&E findings will contribute to any national soils and nutrition industry impact analysis as directed by the GRDC