Spring 2008

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Farmers and ISU Cooperate in On-farm Research

Joel DeJong (left), Josh Sievers and Rodney Mogler (right) look over results from last year’s on-farm research. “This program has allowed us to do more field-length research and has brought a new energy to those of us who’ve been conducting research for years. Farmer interest is very strong as well,” says DeJong.

Rodney Mogler of Alvord, Iowa has always done research-type strip trials on his own. He has recently found partnering with Joel DeJong (’80 ag business, ’88 M.S. professional ag) and Josh Sievers (’98 ag systems technology) with Iowa State University Extension gives him a more complete picture of the results.

“With our type of personal on-farm research, we just got a snapshot in time of what was happening in that particular field,” Mogler says. “Participating in on-farm research gives us the opportunity to work with ISU to collect the data and share and compare information with farmers across several counties who have different soil types and weather conditions. This gives us a higher confidence level in the numbers we are getting back on our own farm.”

The Northwest Iowa On-Farm Research program that DeJong and Sievers coordinate has created a new synergy among ISU Extension, ISU’s Northwest Research and Demonstration Farm, the Northwest Iowa Experimental Association and farmers in northwest Iowa.

The program, which began in 2006, includes farmers (cooperators) in Sioux, Lyon and Osceola counties. Nearly 20 cooperators completed more than 30 replicated comparisons in their fields each of the last two years. This year they expect to have about 30 cooperators with close to 50 projects.

“Our general goal is to try small-plot research on a field-length scale to see if we can replicate what we have seen on the ISU research farms and determine if it is different in the northwest corner of Iowa,” says Joel DeJong, ISU Extension field agronomist based in LeMars.

Josh Sievers, agricultural specialist at the Research and Demonstration Farm at Sutherland, and DeJong show farmers how to replicate trials, they analyze data and bring cooperators together to discuss results. They also involve cooperators in determining future projects.

Mogler, who works with his father and brothers on 2,500 acres in Lyon County, says the research has been easy to incorporate into his operation.

“The process is a pretty unintrusiveand it doesn’t take a lot of extra time,” says Mogler. “We keep it pretty simple by testing planting rates, planting speeds, corn insecticides and other projects. Even at harvest, they offer to bring out a weigh wagon or tell me how to collect the data with my grain cart.”

The Northwest Iowa On-Farm Program was the result of a proposal DeJong submitted in cooperation with David Haden, who was the superintendent at the Northwest Research Farm at that time. This was a direct response to ISU budget cuts that prevented positions to be filled at nearby research farms.

Sievers says, “The cooperators who are involved are very sophisticated, interested farmers who are eager to help us with this information. At the end of the season, when we bring all the cooperators together to review the data results, there is a good interaction among them.”

Mogler agrees that the information is valuable. “This program gives us the opportunity to look at what they’re doing on other research farms and put it into practice on our own farms,” says Mogler. He is applying what he has learned, including by implementing soybean seeding rate recommendations that were researched.

On-farm Research Projects

Research projects have included replicated, field-length trials on:

• soybean seeding rates
• corn fungicides
• planting populations
• SCN trials
• specialty trait bean yield comparisons
• various other management practices

Online Extra

To see the Northwest Iowa On-farm research results from recent years, visit http://ofr.ag.iastate.edu/