Welcome!
Welcome to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) Extension On-Farm Research Website. This site serves as a clearinghouse for on-farm research conducted across Nebraska where Extension is partnering with Nebraska producers and agribusiness representatives to implement well designed, statistically and economically analyzed on-farm research comparisons.
Everyday you see, read or hear about farming practices that hold promise for increasing the profitability of your farming operation. The question you typically have is, “Will it work on my farm?”
To answer this question you may need to experiment. The experiment must be conducted in a manner that will produce credible information. Typically, there is much variation in crop performance within a field. This why simply treating one-half of the field with one treatment and the other half with another treatment is not smart research. It's practically impossible to determine where differences in yield are due to different growing conditions such as moisture, slope, soil type, etc. or indeed due to the treatment. There are certain experimental procedures that should be applied to obtain reliable information from on-farm research. Following these procedures will insure that you, your neighbors, business associates, and others can rely on your research and will see the value in conducting scientifically based on-farm research. You can easily conduct valid, field-scale on-farm research using your equipment, on your land, employing your operation’s management practices.
On-farm research is a powerful decision-making tool for farmers. The time and effort required to design, implement and analyze a sound on-farm research comparison is worth the confidence that you and other agriculturists will have in the results. Results should be taken a step farther by analyzing the economics of the comparison. A yield difference is important, but perhaps not relevant if the cost of the yield increase is more that than the return on investment. Contact your local UNL Extension Educator today to plan your on-farm research agenda. Read about UNL Extension on-farm research groups located in the upper right-hand corner of this page to determine which one is right for you!