Do you want to reduce your cost and improve your net revenue? Confirm if an application is delivering the results you expect, or see if a new hybrid could perform on a certain field? Are you considering a new seed variety or wondering about a herbicide you’ve never used before? Are you thinking about a more narrow row spacing or higher populations?
Why do you want to do an on-farm trial?
You can successfully trial one thing at a time per field. Whatever you decide to trial, make sure your goals are specific and measurable.
See if a new chemical could work on your favorite hybrid
Find out if you could improve yield with a different row spacing
See if a suggested seed variety in FBN Yield Potential performs better than what you plant now
Find the best field to trial
Select a field that has as much uniformity as possible to ensure that your trial will give you useful results that can help to isolate the impact of the factor you’re looking at in your trial. Pay special attention to areas near fence lines, runoff areas and field corners, as these are commonly plagued by outside variables that could impact your data.
Your fields could have variability from:
Different soil types
Topography, elevation
Varying management practices
Drainage
Pesticide residues
Disease pressure
Compaction
If the answer is, “I’m not sure,” spend some time benchmarking by looking at how, and what, other farmers have done. Benchmarking can tell you how you did last year compared to similar farms.
PRO TIP: Benchmarking with FBN allows you to compare your farm’s performance to the performance of nearby farms, over time and in detail.
You can rank all the information provided anonymously in the network to identify the practices and products that lead to top yields and the most profitable seasons. By discovering your farm’s yield competitiveness through benchmarking, you can see how your operation and individual fields measure up.
See yearly performance details on 13 factors:
Variety
Brand
Nitrogen use
Tillage
Crop Rotation
Seeding Rate
Planting Date
Harvest Date
Soil Productivity Index
GDUs
Precipitation
Enterprise Size
Field Size
Sources:
https://blog-crop-news.extension.umn.edu/2017/05/on-farm-research-trial-demonstrates.html https://cropwatch.unl.edu/on-farm-research https://cropwatch.unl.edu/2017/field-studies-setting-trial https://extension.umn.edu/crop-production/how-do-research-your-farm http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/crops/field/news/croptalk/2015/ct-0315a5.htm http://corn.agronomy.wisc.edu/Management/L016.aspx http://extension.uga.edu/publications/detail.html?number=B1177&title=Designing%20Research%20and%20Demonstration%20Tests%20for%20Farmers%27%20Fields#Selecting https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/on_farm_crop_tests_can_be_powerful_tools_for_individual_farmers https://www.iasoybeans.com/upl/downloads/library/guide-to-replicated-strip-trials.pdf
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