Practical On-Farm Research: Why & How
Interest among farmers and their consultants for conducting field scale on-farm research has grown with the availability and adoption of a range of precision agriculture technologies that lessen the logistics of conducting many types of trials. However, conducting sound field research is not just about simpler logistics. It also requires an understanding and appreciation for the statistical and practical details of designing the trial, collecting the data, yield monitor calibration, yield data processing and cleaning, and fundamental statistical analysis. This presentation will shed light on many of these topics.
Speaker
Bob Nielsen
Bob was raised on a small farm in eastern Nebraska, obtained a B.S. degree at the Univ. of Nebraska and graduate degrees at the Univ. of Minnesota. He joined the Agronomy faculty at Purdue University in Indiana in 1982 with statewide responsibilities for applied field research, graduate student training, and Extension programming emphasizing corn production. In recent years, Bob’s field-scale research has focused on determining optimum seeding rates for corn, evaluating the merits of biological inputs for corn, identifying the optimal use of sulfur and starter fertilizer for corn, and the evaluation of small UAVs for crop scouting and field research. Bob’s Extension programming focuses on optimizing yield, profitability, and stewardship of corn production for growers in Indiana and throughout the eastern Corn Belt. Bob began a voluntary partial retirement program in January 2020 with target timeline of retiring fully sometime before the end of 2022.