When challenged in the summer of 2022 to create one seasonal calendar for all crops, regions, and trial types so end users of Experiment Design would know when to time their experiments, the ExpD core team sprang into action.

Jean-Baptiste Pierre and Isabelle Déus contacted key representatives in every region and crop to capture for the season calendar when the following key activities are performed:

• field and grower selection
• trial creation in tool/protocol set up
• mapping trials/fields
• trial fulfillment
• planting
• flowering activities
• data collection in growing stage
• harvest
• seed processing

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​They collected data for each of the six trial types — yield trial, trial seed production, nursery, observation trials, trait introgression, and double haploid — and consolidated it in a single place to allow a view of the season calendar for every field crop and region.

“We will be able to develop and deploy the new tools in phase with the right time of the year that the teams need to use them,” Pierre said.

The season calendar can be easily filtered to view a specific crop, region, and/or trial type to help colleagues release their solutions at the most relevant time to maximize benefits for each activity.