Project Impacts

The tangible delivered products of this proposed research and Extension project include: (1) a data architecture and an accompanying database to manage on-farm experimental data for university research; (2) Extension education materials that augment producer capacity to conduct experimentation and better understand university research results; (3) a model for leveraging producer experimentation for vertical advancement of both producer and researcher in addressing production challenges; (4) results from a scientifically acceptable, spatially replicated, producer-led experiment addressing profitable implementation of conservation practices; and (5) informative critical review of our approach that can be utilized in regions beyond the geographic focus of this project. Together these outputs strengthen agriculture by improving the resiliency and sustainability of current production systems. Our approach is innovative because we will utilize analysis methods that rely on spatial, rather than temporal, replication of treatments in our field experiment. This allows us to be more responsive to immediate production stresses by reducing the time between problem statement and research result. Our expected outcome is a network of stakeholders, including researchers and producers, who have designed, demonstrated, and validated adaptable experimental designs for producer-initiated experimentation that are appropriately matched to their skills and needs. This outcome is intended to generate a positive impact by providing the critical missing data that university research requires to address producers' broader-scale production challenges.