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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Pullman, Washington » Plant Germplasm Introduction and Testing Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #402035
Research Project: Management of Temperate-adapted Forage Legume Genetic Resources and Associated Information

Location: Plant Germplasm Introduction and Testing Research

Title: Optimizing and adopting field book for digital alfalfa germplasm data collection

Author
item Irish, Brian
item BEIL, CRAIG - Cornell University
item SHEEHAN, MORIA - Cornell University

Submitted to: Plant and Animal Genome Conference Proceedings
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/23/2023
Publication Date: 1/12/2024
Citation: Irish, B.M., Beil, C., Sheehan, M.J. 2024. Optimizing and adopting field book for digital alfalfa germplasm data collection. Plant and Animal Genome Conference Proceedings. NA.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Temperate-adapted forage legumes (TFL), including alfalfa, are important agricultural crops because of their high yields and nutritive quality as well as their ability to fix nitrogen. In addition to service activities like long-term conservation and distribution of seed, efforts in the USDA National Plant Germplasm System (NPGS) TFL germplasm program have focused on characterizing and evaluating the collections. Simply inherited phenotypic traits used in taxonomic classifications and describing diversity are routinely collected. In addition, more in-depth evaluations measuring agronomic traits (e.g., yield and quality) are essential to encourage germplasm use and for in-house prebreeding efforts. Adopting technologies to efficiently collect and manage data digitally allows for gained efficiencies and lessens transcription errors. The Field Book application is a customizable, open-source software Android-based platform that has been developed specifically for field research plot data collection. In our hands, Field Book has been customized and trialed for digital data collection in a large replicated multi-year field alfalfa germplasm evaluation in Prosser, WA. The application was installed on two ruggedized Samsung Galaxy A7 devices. A customized BreedBase (AlfalfaBase) instance was used to upload and store field layouts and, traits to be collected and were deployed to Field Book via the BrAPI connection. Traits to be collected (e.g., ordinal, nominal, qualitative) were also customized in AlfafaBase and downloaded through BrAPI. Data collection occurred three times during the year corresponding to spring, summer and fall harvests in 2022 and saved locally on internal storage to corresponding default Field Book folders. Later, a wireless network connection was established, and data could be exported to the AlfalfaBase platform via the BrAPI interface for curation. The Field Book interface on the larger tablet screen, along with easy to toggle buttons between descriptors and ratings was straightforward. In addition, the option of having descriptor definitions displayed for reference and the text fields for note taking were also handy. Although very effective in eliminating the need for analog data collection, some difficulties were encountered. These were mostly associated to the tablet and included short battery life, heating of screen/device during summer data collection, and screen glare in full sun. Tools used to overcome these drawbacks included additional batteries/solar-powered chargers and shaded canopies. Because BrAPI compliant data was collected, these traits can also be directly transferred to the GRIN-Global database and associated with specific alfalfa germplasm accessions being evaluated. Other efficiencies and challenges of implementing these technologies, in the context of alfalfa and other TFL plant genetic resources characterization and evaluation, will be discussed.