Field Crops Webinar: Increasing Profits Through On-Farm Research

February 27, 2023

David Bullock from the University of Illinois and Elizabeth Hawkins from The Ohio State University discuss “Increasing Profits through On-farm Research.” On-farm research is a great way to improve the profitability of a farm operation. Many farmers are already making comparisons to aid in decision making. Hawkins discusses how to get started with on-farm research and best practices for getting the most out of your data. She also shares some opportunities for getting involved and resources for learning about research other farmers are conducting.

Bullock explains why simply knowing “yield potential” zones may not be useful in deriving profitable site-specific input management prescriptions. Rather, it is necessary to know how yield response differs across the field to develop profitable site-specific prescriptions. Bullock then explains how farmers and crop consultants can work with the multinational Data-Intensive Farm Management Project (DIFM) to run large agronomic field trials on their own fields, gain data-based knowledge of site-specific yield response in their fields, and so derive profitable management insights from the data.