So, you’ve decided to do on-farm research. Now what? How do you select the site, design the experiment protocol, measure and collect the data, and analyze the data? Need resources along the way? Check out the resources below for all the information you need to succeed.
University of Nebraska Grower’s Guide to On-Farm Research
- Site Selection
- Designing your experiment layout
- Two treatment design, three or more treatment design
How to Develop an On-Farm Research Project – 10 Step Process. Pages 6-9 of North Central SARE How to Conduct Research on Your Farm or Ranch
Farmer/Farm Information Data Sheets
- University of Nebraska On-Farm Research Participation Form
- Soil Health Partnership Farmer Profile and Operation Information Data Sheet
- Purdue University Data Record Sheet Templates
- General Background Information for Corn Trials
- Plant counts (plant population) for corn
Randomized complete block design involves random assignment of an untreated check strip and one or more treatments. These procedures are critical to improving the power of the conclusions drawn. It is our recommendation that randomized design be followed for all on-farm research.
Generic protocols for “Randomized Complete Block” OFR protocols
- University of Nebraska
- Practical Farmers of Iowa
- Sample protocols:
- Full listing of Cover Crop protocols (Caution: protocols do NOT all follow randomized complete block design)
Soil Sampling Protocols
- Soil Health Partnership protocol and supplement for soil sampling for Solum, Cornell, and USDA-ARS soil health analysis.
Soil Quality Tests
- USDA NRCS Soil Quality Test Kit Guide introduces 12 field measures of soil quality and how to measure.
- Soil biological test, Permanganate Oxidizable Carbon – POXC, would be a one option since materials can be ordered and done locally without involving lab. POXC test can be ordered and conducted on your own.
Measuring Yield
- Soil Health Partnership – Tips for Harvesting a Successful Soil Health Partnership Trial
- Precision Agriculture – Best Management Practices for Collecting Accurate Yield Data and Avoiding Errors During Harvest
- Improving Yield Map Quality by Reducing Errors through Yield Data File Post-Processing
- Iowa Soybean Association – Guide to On-Farm Replicated Strip Trials (Harvest Data is on page 32)
Collecting Data
University of Nebraska Grower’s Guide to On-Farm Research
- Collecting data
- Precision agriculture tools for on-farm research including planting with technology, harvesting with technology and cleaning and importing data
University of Nebraska’s Precision Ag Data Management on-line course for on-farm research planning and data collection
Analyzing Data
Ohio State’s Statistics and Agricultural Research fact sheet (review of statistics concepts for the Extension professional), Degrees of Freedom Calculator (excel spreadsheet) and Data Analysis Tool (excel spreadsheet).
Understanding the Least Significant Difference From Understanding Ag Research Tool Package for Extension Educators (4 minutes)
Fact Sheet: What Do You Mean 5 Bushels an Acre is Not Significant?
Iowa Soybean Association’s Guide to On-Farm Replicated Strip Trials
- How to use on-farm data (page 38)
University of Minnesota’s On-Farm Research: Interpreting the Results of Your Experiment, starts on page 4.
University of Minnesota’s Excel spreadsheet for analyzing two or three treatments.