Source: TARLETON STATE UNIVERSITY - TIAER submitted to NRP
ENHANCING REGIONAL DAIRY CENTER’S OUTREACHING CAPACITY VIA VIRTUAL REALITY PLATFORM
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
COMPLETE
Funding Source
OTHER GRANTS
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1025995
Grant No.
2021-70001-34521
Cumulative Award Amt.
$299,768.00
Proposal No.
2020-11297
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Sep 1, 2021
Project End Date
Aug 31, 2024
Grant Year
2021
Program Code
[NLGCA]- Capacity Building Grants for Non Land Grant Colleges of Agriculture
Recipient Organization
TARLETON STATE UNIVERSITY - TIAER
201 Saint Felix Street
STEPHENVILLE,TX 76402
Performing Department
Animal Science & Vet Tech Scie
Non Technical Summary
Texas Dairy industry is rapidly expanding. Located at the heart of Texas Milkshed, the Southwest Regional Dairy Center (SWRDC) located at Tarleton State University is at the forefront of gathering and processing research-based information for Texas dairy farmers. To meet the service/outreach demand of dairy communities of entire Texas and the southwest, it became apparent that the SWRDC needs greater capacity for engaging more geographically distant groups, including dairy producers in Texas Panhandles Milkshed, agricultural researchers in College Station, and extension educators spread throughout all Texas Counties. To address this bottleneck issue, we propose to employ 360° Virtual Reality (VR) Outreaching Outlet.The PI's on the project will record VR videos in different areas of farm and manure management. We will use these VR videos to engage more producers through the state of TX and reach more personnel through VR training. Lastly, we will develop an extension training network through the SWRDC to train more producers on best practices.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
30734993100100%
Knowledge Area
307 - Animal Management Systems;

Subject Of Investigation
3499 - Dairy cattle, general/other;

Field Of Science
3100 - Management;
Goals / Objectives
The goal of the project is to help dairy producers and extension educators access research-based information from SWRDC regarding sustainable dairy production. Our strategy is to incorporate on-farm outreach materials with 360° VR components, showcasing an immersive experience of farm tours and field demonstrations to individual viewers. An online platform will be developed intermediate outcome is to bring knowledge to dairy producers on how to handle farm management and manure in the real-world via a Virtual Reality (VR) workshop or classroom setting. The outcome of this project will improve dairy producers' access to extension information across the state of Texas.Specific objectives for this project are:Objective 1: Foster researcher involvement in extension at SWRDC by developing 360° VR farm tours of SWRDC and 360° VR training modules with topics in dairy and manure management.Objective 2: Develop web platform to improve producer and educator access to video resources, support the development of online Extension courses and interactive publications.Objective 3: Connect research to practice by integrating VR-based information delivery system with conventional onsite services at SWRDC.
Project Methods
Objective 1. Develop an online VR Extension platform based at the Southwest Regional Dairy Center: The first task of the project is to design, prepare, record, assemble and augment 360° VR clips.To record 360° VR videos, the project team will conduct physical tours of the Southwest Regional Dairy Center (SWRDC) and facilities, perform demonstrations of dairy operation and manure management practices, and interview experienced farmers and educators. The choice of clip topics will be based on the three themes, each engaging a viewer from a different aspect of farming practice. The first deals with dairy manure management technologies - looking at the selection of methods to minimize the environmental, human, and legal risks of stockpiled manure. The second deals with an immersive experience of best practices of managing dairy farm and handling manure conducted at SWRDC. The third one deals with the 'human side' of dairy farm and manure management - personal interviews of original research at SWRDC and success stories of experience farmers in the Stephenville and other dairy concentrated areas. The project team will edit recordings through online communications, and use these to implement program communications to other peer targeted commodities in the nation such as cattle, equine, swine, and poultry producers. 360° clips will be captured using the 360° VR camera system of our team. These panoramic clips of the real environment will be assembled to communicate manure management concepts.PIs will also narrate supplemental information that enhances viewers' understanding of a scene. For points of interest in the scene, we will augment hot-spots or graphical markers to attract viewers' attention. The 360° VR videos will be housed on our dedicated YouTube Texas Manure Channel created for this project. These videos can be viewed in 360° or 3D with a cardboard glass. The 360° panoramic playback of video will be supported on the mobile YouTube App and Aggie-XR mobile App (in beta testing currently). The VR video YouTube playlist link and Aggie-XR application will be disseminated through social media, newsletters, and other media events.Objective 2. Attract and engage dairy producers to raise awareness of management strategies through VR field tours on the farms managed by experienced farmers and/or specialists.The project team will commit to collaborating with three existing dairy and agricultural conferences and three producer associations meeting events with historically strong attendance throughout Texas including Dairy Committee Meetings, Dairy Outreach Program Area (DOPA) workshops, and Southwest Dairy Day. In addition, we are planning a special Texas Animal Manure Management Issue Conference (TAMMIC) to be held in 2022, and are invited to the 7th biannual International Animal Mortality Disposal Symposium. These host extension education events represent all major production areas in Southwest of the United States.The workshop and tours will be conducted in conventional lectures combined with the VR platform. PIs' experience in designing and running previous VR activities will form the basis of our initial seminar design. Dairy producers and students are expected to increase their knowledge and understanding of technology/policy/risk by participating in one or more workshops. They will be asked to complete a.) An assessment worksheet, b.) A plan of action worksheet to prioritize actions they will take, and c.) A session evaluation, either online or in person. Sessions will be designed to ensure everyone had enough time to come back together for person-to-person discussions. Extension county agents will be also instructed to use basic VR Extension technology, and will educate their producers in need.Objective 3: Connect research to practice by developing SWRDC Network for dissemination.The project team will create a Researcher-Agent-Farmer collaborative network of SWRDC for disseminating and implementing farm-based research. The PIs will conceive and launch initial network bi-monthly meeting as informal meetings among interested members of researchers (Tarleton State University and Texas A&M AgriLife Research), producers (Texas Dairy Committee) and extension educators (Texas A&M AgriLife Extension) as well as research staff and students. Though the meetings, the PIs will engage these groups to come together on social media to push the envelope on what they can collaborate on dairy research and practice.The meeting content will be shaped to showcase VR based research results obtained from the SWRDC. An informal setting will be provided for in response to audience who needs and/or interests in research-based information, or any other discussions and collaborations happening at SWRDC. PI Jones and PI Liu will host, nominate topics and presenters for meeting agendas to form an institutional setting of network.The network will help to forge an understanding of extension issues. The agenda will include VR introduction, updates of VR demonstrations, and expert's presentation and producer interaction, and agent reports. How VR-based and farm-based demonstration will be developed to help dairy producers. General audience will provide input via simple surveys and facilitated brainstorming, and PIs will nominate items accordingly and invite presenters based on their knowledge of the needs from audience. In the later phase of this project, our SWRDC Extension virtual platform will include VR dairy farm walks, VR site tours, and VR based workshops that encourage a flow of ideas and brainstorms related to dairy management. These materials will also establish sustainable dairy libraries within PIs' network, and test the use of social media on topics of interest to farmers and students.In addition, PIs will use this VR Extension platform to showcase the success efforts of experienced farmers. The project team will continue the success of 2019's first SWRDC showcase, even though it was canceled in 2020 due to the pandemic. The SWRDC showcase event also offers DOPA (continuing education credits) credits to participating dairy producers. These DOPA credits are needed for local dairy producers to hold their manure permit, a necessity on a dairy farm in Texas dairy operation areas. In addition to the in person showcase, PIs and collaborators will coordinate the research/management projects and technologies related to the dairy center, by keeping members informed through the project websites, Twitter account, and Facebook account. Additional core members will be developed among network members to provide leadership through event planning, decision making, or recruiting new members. These research/management projects and technologies will be including in VR field days and introduced to dairy producers and students.The SWRDC will also be used to hold public online events to teach students and other interested community members about dairy farm management. The web meeting will be hosted on a social media platform chosen by the group members. As the frequency of the VR field days is not bound by the distance nor time that members need to travel to get together, PIs will announce frequently VR field day activity at the beginning stage of the group, as often as every month to build cohesion and momentum. The frequency will be reduced to bi-monthly when the group is established. PIs will maintain regular conversation to encourage peer-to-peer interaction, while allowing members to participate at the level most comfortable for each individual. The PIs will arrange on-demand face-to-face meetings to provide additional networking opportunities for the group.Extension evaluationDr. Jennifer Spencer is an Extension Dairy Specialist in the animal sciences department at Texas A&M. Through her attached letter of support, she has agreed to be an outside reviewer for this extension project.

Progress 09/01/21 to 08/31/24

Outputs
Target Audience:Dairy Industry and Dairy Producers--A Virtual Reality platform was developed to educate dairy producers about farm management and handling manure. Students in Animal and Dairy science--Undergraduate students in Agriculture and Natural resources were trained on aspects of Agriculture, specifically dairy production. These students were exposed to training laboratories at the Tarleton University Dairy. Consumers of Dairy Products. Visitor tours were hosted at the Tarleton Dairy to explain dairy production in a 'real-world' setting. Changes/Problems:The PI changed from Dr. Barbara Jones, who resigned from Tarleton State University to Dr. Edward Webb. Dr Jennifer Spencer (Texas A&M AgriLife Extension) and Dr Barbara Jones' continued support contributed to the successful completion of projects initiated by the original research team in this project. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Major goals of the project The goal of the project was to help dairy producers and extension educators access research-based information from SWRDC regarding sustainable dairy production. Our strategy was to incorporate on-farm outreach materials with 360° VR components, showcasing an immersive experience of farm tours and field demonstrations to individual viewers. An online platform was developed as an intermediate outcome to bring dairy producers' knowledge of handling farm management and manure in the real world via a virtual reality (VR) workshop or classroom setting. The outcome of this project shows that the use of Virtual Reality platforms provides an alternative and helpful way to improve dairy producers' access to extension information across Texas. Specific objectives for this project are: Objective 1: Foster researcher involvement in extension at SWRDC by developing 360° VR farm tours of SWRDC and 360° VR training modules with dairy and manure management topics. Objective 2: Develop a web platform to improve producer and educator access to video resources and support the development of online Extension courses and interactive publications. Objective 3: Connect research to practice by integrating a VR-based information delivery system with conventional onsite services at SWRDC. What was accomplished under these goals? Part 1 The project team developed the online course "Environmental Quality Management of Animal Feeding Operations" (Fig 1). The course is up and running on the AgriLife Learn platform. The two-part course takes approximately 8 hours to complete. Interactive presentations will equip participants with knowledge on 1) established farms and manure treatment facilities, 2) evaluating the risks and benefits of adopting manure management practices, 3) understanding the impacts of manure treatment on water/air quality, 4) value-added materials using animal waste, 5) safety and biosecurity concerns. The course features demonstrations in both traditional and VR format to provide an in-the-field perspective to let participants see the methods in action. The project team has maintained the course materials and helped participants with their inquiries, questions, and issues. This online course offers education credits to dairy producers who cannot attend in-person programs, especially when in-person programs are canceled due to natural disasters or other reasons. This course also gives new producers in livestock and poultry operations opportunities to gain knowledge and meet additional credit requirements to start their careers. Part 2 Three graduate students at the MS level are busy researching dairy production and management aspects at the Southwest Regional Dairy Center (Tarleton Dairy). The students are: Lauren Bielamowicz ~ MS-thesis student = Graduated in Fall 2023 (Supervised by Dr B. Jones) Lily Martin ~ MS-thesis student = Graduated in Spring 2024 (Supervised by Dr E.C. Webb). Anna Lily Ollinger ~ MS-thesis student = Graduated in Fall 2024(Supervised by Dr E.C. Webb). Rachel A. Wright ~ MS-thesis student = Finalizing dairy survey in Fall 2024 and will graduate in Spring 2025 (Supervised by Dr E.C. Webb). How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? The project has provided training and professional development to graduate students (specifically Lily Martin, Anna Lily Ollinger, and Lauren Bielamowicz) through their work and presentation of short courses and guided tours to the public at the Southwest Regional Dairy Center. Part of the research was conducted at a commercial dairy farm, where the graduate students gained valuable knowledge, skills, and management experience. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Some of the scientific findings about dairy cow welfare were published in a scientific journal with peer review, and a second publication will be submitted in March 2025. More outputs will be disseminated via the 'Texas Dairy Matters' of Texas A&M AgriLife. Two MS theses were published, and a third MS thesis will be submitted in Spring 2025. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Research Publications VR videos on dairy farm management and animal waste management. The videos are available on the project team Extension YouTube Channel "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtKWpJ3fKQm6nUFQgL1pU_A" Martin, L.A.; Webb, E.C.; Runyan, C.L.; Spencer, J.A.; Jones, B.W.; Wellmann, K.B. The Effects of Breed, Lactation Number, and Lameness on the Behavior, Production, and Reproduction of Lactating Dairy Cows in Central Texas. Ruminants 2024, 4, 316-328. https://doi.org/10.3390/ruminants4030023 Ollinger, A.L.; Webb, E.C.; Spencer, J.A.; Jones, B.W.; The impact of lying behaviour on the reproduction of dairy cows in Central Texas, In preparation for Special Issue in Ruminants, For March 2025.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Texas's Dairy industry is rapidly expanding. Located at the heart of Texas Milkshed, the Southwest Regional Dairy Center (SWRDC) at Tarleton State University is at the forefront of gathering and processing research-based information for Texas dairy farmers. The Southwest Regional Dairy Center (SWRDC) at Tarleton State University is the only venue state-wide that has classrooms, research laboratories, and a commercial farm under one roof, a setting that can significantly accelerate the adoption of practices for dairy producers in the whole state of Texas and even the southwest region of the United States. To meet the service/outreach demand of dairy communities of the entire Texas and the southwest, it became apparent that the SWRDC needs greater capacity for engaging more geographically distant groups, including dairy producers in Texas Panhandles Milkshed, agricultural researchers in College Station and extension educators spread throughout all Texas Counties. The project aimed to help dairy producers and extension educators access research-based information from SWRDC regarding sustainable dairy production. Our strategy was to incorporate on-farm outreach materials with 360° VR components, showcasing an immersive experience of farm tours and field demonstrations to individual viewers. A web platform was developed to achieve this goal. The intermediate outcome was to teach dairy producers how to handle farm management and manure in the real world via a virtual reality (VR) classroom setting. The outcomes of this project contribute alternative ways of improving dairy producers' access to extension information across Texas. The project's specific objectives were as follows: (1) Foster researcher involvement in extension at SWRDC by developing 360° VR farm tours of SWRDC and 360° VR training modules with topics in dairy and manure management. (2) Develop a web platform to improve producer and educator access to video resources and support the development of online Extension courses and interactive publications. (3) Connect research to practice by integrating a VR-based information delivery system with conventional onsite services at SWRDC.

Publications

  • Type: Peer Reviewed Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Martin, L.A.;Webb, E.C.; Runyan, C.L.; Spencer, J.A.; Jones,B.W.; Wellmann, K.B. The Effects of Breed, Lactation Number, and Lameness on the Behavior, Production, and Reproduction of Lactating Dairy Cows in Central Texas. Ruminants 2024, 4, 316328. https://doi.org/10.3390/ruminants4030023


Progress 09/01/22 to 08/31/23

Outputs
Target Audience:Dairy cattle producers. animal science and production students and teachers. Changes/Problems:The PI changed from Dr. Barbara Jones, who resigned from Tarleton State University, so PI was changed to Dr. Edward Webb What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Three graduate students at the MS level are currently busy with their research on aspects of dairy production and management at the Southwest regional dairy center (Tarleton dairy). The students are: Lily Martin ~ MS-thesis student = project almost complete and started writing thesis Anna Lily Ollinger ~ MS-thesis student = project almost complete and started writing thesis Rachel A. Wright ~ MS-thesis student = starting with thesis in Spring 2024 One student already graduated in this funding program under the supervision of Dr Barbara Jones, namely Lauren P Bielamowicz. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Nothing Reported What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?The project team is busy researching and developinga series of VR videos on dairy farm management and animal waste management.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? The goal of the project is to help dairy producers and extension educators access research-based information from SWRDC regarding sustainable dairy production. Our strategy is to incorporate on-farm outreach materials with 360° VR components, showcasing an immersive experience of farm tours and field demonstrations to individual viewers. An online platform will be developed intermediate outcome is to bring knowledge to dairy producers on how to handle farm management and manure in the real-world via a Virtual Reality (VR) workshop or classroom setting. The outcome of this project will improve dairy producers' access to extension information across the state of Texas. Specific objectives for this project are: Objective 1: Foster researcher involvement in extension at SWRDC by developing 360° VR farm tours of SWRDC and 360° VR training modules with topics in dairy and manure management. Objective 2: Develop web platform to improve producer and educator access to video resources, support the development of online Extension courses and interactive publications. Objective 3: Connect research to practice by integrating VR-based information delivery system with conventional onsite services at SWRDC.

Publications


    Progress 09/01/21 to 08/31/22

    Outputs
    Target Audience:Our main target audience reached are producers. A specific YouTube channel hosts the videos that have been recorded so that producers can view at their leisure. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The Co-PI was able to host the Texas Animal Manure Management Issues conference. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The films have been released on a dedicated YouTube channel so that producers in Texas and all over the country are able to view them. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We plan to develop a web platform so that we can improve access to the videos. We will film more videos surrounding dairy management.

    Impacts
    What was accomplished under these goals? We have filmed more videos, especially surrounding nutrient management and composting.

    Publications