Dynamic generation of experimental treatment plans

An autonomous farming machine configured for generating an experimental treatment plan to perform in a field having a plurality of field portions, the autonomous farming machine comprising:

• a sensor array configured to obtain measurements of treatment plans executed in the field;
• a treatment array configured to perform a plant treatment plan in the field;
• one or more processors;
• and
• a non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing computer program instructions for generating the experimental treatment plan, the computer program instructions when executed by the one or more processors causing the autonomous farming machine to:
• perform, using the treatment array, prescribed treatments of the plant treatment plan comprising a sequence of prescribed treatments as the autonomous farming machine moves through the field;
• generate the experimental treatment plan comprising a sequence of experimental treatments for the autonomous farming machine to apply to a subset of the plurality of field portions in the field, and wherein generating the experimental treatment plan comprises:
• determining the sequence of experimental treatments for the experimental treatment plan, wherein:
• the sequence of experimental treatments configured to induce a variance;
• the variance represents a deliberately induced agronomic difference between plants treated by the plant treatment plan and plants treated by the experimental treatment plan, and
• the variance is measurable by the sensor array, and
• generating the experimental treatment plan comprising the sequence of experimental treatments, wherein at least one experimental treatment in the experimental treatment plan is different from prescribed treatments of the plant treatment plan;
• and
• performing, using the treatment array, the experimental treatment plan for the subset of field portions and the plant treatment plan for a remainder of field portions of the plurality of field portions.