Data in Context 

We are data driven! 

At The Century Experiment, we collect data on everything we do.  Our regular data collection includes water and fertilizer inputs, yield, weather events, pest pressure, soil microbiology, energy use, and more. Every ten years, we take deep soil samples of every plot to learn about agriculture's affect on soils all the way to three meters deep. Our data is publicly accessible, and is a growing resource for researchers.


Performing Research at The Century Experiment

We are a research hub! 

We are a hub for public and private researchers, growers, industry professionals, governmental officials, and anyone who wants to come together to learn more about sustainable agriculture. A key part of our mission is to host research projects on the Century Experiment plots.


How we look at data 

Our available data includes:

Long-term Data Sets

This data includes information collected since 1993 for tomato, corn, and wheat.  The long-term data sets can be accessed in the .csv files below. Metadata is described in the metadata file and must be cited as:

Wolf, K. M., Torbert, E. E., Bryant, D., Burger, M., Denison, R. F., Herrera, I., Hopmans, J., Horwath, W., Kaffka, S., Kong, A.Y.Y., Norris, R. F., Six, J., Tomich, T.P., and Scow, K.M. (2018). The century experiment: the first twenty years of UC Davis' Mediterranean agroecological experiment. Ecology, 99, 503-503.

All data users must adhere to the following requirements:

Summary of Data Use Policy:

1.      User must contact ASI when any future work based on or derived from the Century Experiment data is submitted for publication in any venue.

2.      User will not redistribute data and documentation.

3.      User will cite and acknowledge the Century Experiment in any publications based on data following the format:

The Century Experiment. Year. Cover crop biomass yields. Davis, CA: Electronic Data Archives: CC-001. [Database]. https://asi.ucdavis.edu/programs/ce/research/data

Long-term data set files:

File 1:  describes crops grown in each plot-year, and what irrigation type was used

File 2: describes irrigation amounts applied

File 3: describes harvest measurements (see metadata file)

File 4: describes fertilizer and compost nutrient composition

File 5: describes fertilizer and compost application amounts

Click here for metadata. 

Soil Sample Archives

The Century Experiment archives contains samples of each crop and soil from every system from 1993 to present

Operational Data

We measure tractor passes, fuel use, and labor requirements for each of our different systems.  Searchable operational data is coming soon.