Improving management and profit, productivity outcomes: TAPS + IIC
The Testing Ag Performance Solutions (TAPS) program supports participants in testing out new farm management strategies and technologies in a no-risk environment.
The Testing Ag Performance Solutions (TAPS) program is carefully designed to reflect “real world” on-farm conditions and circumstances. Since its launch in 2017, the TAPS program has involved hundreds of participants from Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma. Data is gathered from participant “farms,” whose management decisions are imposed on randomized replicated plots. Analysis of sets of decisions can address persistent, important irrigation management knowledge gaps by teasing out which management choices, decisions, and technology use contribute most to producer productivity, profitability, and/or input-use efficiency, and why.
As they compete, TAPS participants showcase and boost their decision-making skill related to crop and irrigation management and marketing.
In 2022, TAPS applied to partner with IIC to mobilize a large team of researchers that is working to analyze TAPS data, exploring information related to:
Understanding hybrid response to water and nitrogen application timing and amount
Exploring outcomes and influence of using soil moisture sensors on producers’ mindsets
Estimating the effect of improving water (soil moisture regime) and N use efficiency on reducing greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) footprint and nitrogen balance
“TAPS is a highly interactive farm-management competition that directly engages stakeholders in finding efficient and profitable ways to manage crop production.”
- Daran Rudnick, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
The team will channel its research insights into open-source publications and summaries, videos, presentations, fact sheets and other messaging appropriate for non-academic audiences. Stay tuned for more to come in 2023-2024.
Learn more about TAPS: https://taps.unl.edu/