I'm confused about timing.

It quotes the NZ Herald piece (at https://www.nzherald.co.nz/bay-of-plenty-times/news/pukehina... ) saying:

> “After I’d spent two years writing down my planting and the moon phases, I’d built a better relationship with my contractor, and I picked a better time to plant on, and now he’ll come then.”

It looks like the $2.7 million wasn't allocated until 2022, and the workshop was in July 2023.

How then has the farmer had two years of observations due to this funding?

> only time you hear anything about a control, and I'm pretty sure there isn't one

It doesn't appear the full $2.7 million is for that lunar phase research. I can't figure out much is earmarked for that, but https://ourlandandwater.nz/news/rere-ki-uta-rere-ki-tai-aims... matches the description of the project:

] “On-farm, the research considers whole-of-system wellbeing through metrics across soil health, animal wellbeing, milk and meat quality, and ecological and environmental health, as well as looking at financial measures of farm success,” says Clare Bradley.

] “Farming whānau wellbeing and insight is also integrated into the connected research, considering how on-farm changes affect our rural communities and individual farmers. Lastly, off-farm, the research will measure whether the connection to Māori values and tikanga can attract a premium in export markets.”

with a link to https://agrisea.co.nz/science-certification/rangahau-researc... which has several mentions of controls, like;

Experimental design and detailed project description

As part of the Rere ki uta rere ki tai work, we have an experiment on
10 hectares of the Lincoln University Sheep Farm from September 2022
to April 2023. A completely randomized experimental design features
treatments determined by a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement of:

Pasture: ryegrass-based vs multispecies (Diverse)
Fertilizer: Conventional vs Seaweed (AgriSea biostimulants)

Note: each pasture will be split in half, with each half receiving
either conventional or seaweed, grazed by a total of 60 ewes with lambs
at 15 per treatment.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/bay-of-plenty-times/news/pukehina... gives a description of the research done on one of the farms:

] The $2.7 million Rere ki Uta, Rere ki Tai trial has the potential to transform New Zealand’s farming industry. It tests whether using farming methods that enhance the mana and mauri of the soil create healthier, more resilient, more profitable farms that are better able to withstand environmental, societal and regulatory pressure. It is hosted by AgriSea New Zealand. ...

] The data captured in the trial is well beyond what’s normally calculated for farm soil health in New Zealand.

] A normal farmer does a basic soil test down to only 75mm and many rely on the measure of Olsen phosphorous to tell them how much phosphate is readily available for a plant to uptake.

] In this project, researchers from Lincoln University, Manaaki Whenua, AgResearch, specialist social science research consultants and farm economic consultants measure metrics across soil health from a much wider perspective - including animal and human wellbeing.

] Running concurrently with the study of 10 farms is research on 10ha of Lincoln Research Farm to investigate the connection between sheep milk and meat quality and soil and pasture health, including the impact of biostimulants and fertiliser use.

] Mohi says he is already noticing positive changes from cutting fertiliser, using biostimulants and diversifying the paddock crop.

] A core sample at the time he stopped applying fertiliser measured roots 500mm deep compared to 1.2 metres a year later, and potassium has risen despite adding none.

] “We went from 160 units of nitrogen to 30 last year which was a big saving, and we were probably the greenest farm in this area for most of the summer.

That's a far cry from spending $2.7 million on crop scheduling on the phase of the Moon!

I wasn't able to find anything on the project web site on using lunar scheduling as part of their research, so wonder how much of the article really reflects what the project is doing.