2024 Cooperators’ Program Report
Paying Attention With Intention
At the annual Cooperators’ Meeting in December 2024, we presented seven farmers from five farms with the Master Researcher Award. PFI gives this award to farmers who have conducted at least 20 on-farm research trials and presented at or hosted at least five PFI events. One of the awardees was Jill Beebout, who raises fruits, vegetables and livestock near Chariton, Iowa. When accepting the award, Jill shared, “Other than our family and the weather, PFI has been the single largest influence on our farm.” Since the late 1980s, more than 300 PFI cooperators, like Jill, have conducted 1,700 trials, generating their own data and influencing their farms. Before any relevant data can be created, though, cooperators first drill down on their research objectives while also considering the time and resources at their disposal. These objectives often take the form of questions like, “Can I try a new practice and increase productivity?” “What is this practice costing me?” “How is this practice benefiting me or my farm?”
In the pages that follow, you’ll see many practices that cooperators inserted into those kinds of questions in 2024, as well as some answers. For instance:
• Kathy Dice, Alice McGary, Roxane Mitten and Mark Quee learned what onion varieties work (and which did not work) on their farms.
• Landon Brown and Keaton Krueger studied the impacts of no-till and strip-till on crop yields and financial returns in fields they planted to cover crops.
• Several corn farmers wary of marketing claims put various biostumulants and biochar seed treatments to the test.
Apart from the specific objectives of on-farm research trials, another reason cooperators cite for taking part in a trial is personal growth and learning. Some cooperators, like Robert Harvey, refer to this as “exercising my brain.” The very act of participating in a trial is prized by Carmen Black, Emily Fagan and Adam Ledvina for helping them better organize their thoughts and keep good records. “It’s so useful to keep good track of all the details,” Emily says. “If I wasn’t doing a PFI trial, I would likely be less organized and not keep good-enough track of things to come to a real conclusion.” In other words, paying attention with intention is a valuable skill cooperators learn while doing on-farm research. Dave and Meg Schmidt agree. They raise grassfed cattle near Exira, Iowa, and were among the farmers who received the Master Researcher Award in December 2024. In his acceptance remarks, Dave shared how having their own data helps them make informed decisions and instills confidence in their farming practices. “There’s great comfort in being in the mainstream,” Dave said. “But once you step out of that mainstream, having data helps.” Carly and Ethan Zierke, who completed their first trials in 2024, echo Dave’s sentiments. “As a beginning farmer, there are countless things we do on a daily basis because we think we need to,” Ethan says. “It’s always a good feeling to implement a practice that is supported by experience and data.”
To dive deeper into the experiences and data summarized on the pages that follow, we encourage you to explore the full research reports on our website at practicalfarmers.org/research. We’ve also listed at the top of each summary the PFI staff scientist who oversaw the project. Feel free to reach out to any of them if you want more information.
Here’s to the curious and creative farmers who take a scientific approach to improving their farms year in and year out.
Download the full 2024 Cooperators’ Program reporT
Strip-Till vs. No-Till Following Cover Crop
Many farmers use strip-till or no-till methods to plant corn and soybeans because they want to reduce soil disturbance, minimize planting costs, plant green into standing cover crops for weed control – or all three. One drawback of no-till management is that in some conditions, it can cause modest yield declines (about 3% on average) compared to conventional tillage. Strip-till requires an extra equipment pass compared to no-till, but many expect it to result in higher yields. However, four out of five past PFI research trials directly comparing the two practices have shown no difference in corn and soybean yields between strip-till and no-till planting. This year, farmers Landon Brown and Keaton Krueger investigated how planting corn (Brown) and soybeans (Krueger) by strip-till versus no-till affected their crop yields and enterprise budgets.
Soybean Maturities in Delayed-Termination Cereal Rye Cover Crop
Planting green is a practice in which farmers plant soybeans into a living cereal rye
cover crop and kill the rye at a later date. Because the practice leaves rye to grow for longer, it can boost the soil health and weed suppression benefits of the cover crop. But it can also be associated with a soybean yield decline, especially if rye termination is delayed until several weeks or more after soybean planting. 2024 was the second year that Tracy Skaar looked at whether using later-maturity soybeans when planting green can offset soybean yield decline caused by delayed rye termination. Last year, Tracy and other farmers found that later-maturity soybeans did not generally offset yield decline caused by delayed termination. This year, in addition to measuring yields, Tracy was interested in observing “weed control efficacy of early- versus late-terminated rye.”
Onion Variety Trial
When choosing from the many onion varieties available, farmers need to consider a range of factors that can influence
crop growth and marketability – such as growth rate, yield, taste and resistance to pests like thrips, which can lower yield and how long onions will keep in storage. In this trial, Kathy Dice, Alice McGary, Roxane Mitten and Mark Quee collectively compared the performance of six onion varieties. They also examined the varieties’ storage stability and resistance to thrips damage. The varieties chosen spanned yellow, white, pink and red onion types, and ranged from industry-standard hybrids to heritage open-pollinated varieties. The farmers hypothesized that varieties that were either more resistant or less attractive to thrips might have yield or storage benefits. To assess thrips’ potential impact, cooperators counted thrips on plants in the field. They also counted signs of thrips damage – which shows up as whitish streaks or blotches on leaves. After harvesting and weighing the fresh onions, the cooperators stored them for months in the conditions they would normally use for their operations. After storage, they sampled the onions for storage quality, cutting samples open to look for mushy layers inside.
Sweet Pepper Variety Trial
The Carmen F1 variety of sweet pepper is an excellent pepper, known for its sweet taste, adaptability and ease of growing. But because it’s a hybrid, seed is expensive and farmers must buy new seeds each year. To save money and have the option of saving seeds, the cooperators in this project wanted to identify an open-pollinated line that could match or come close to Carmen in quality and production. They tested three alternative varieties: Bridge to Paris, Corno di Torro and Italia.
The Effect of Bale Grazing on Soil Properties and Biodiversity in
Pasture
Bale grazing is a way of feeding livestock in the winter by providing bales of hay to animals out on the land, instead of indoors. What this looks like varies from farm to farm depending on climate, geography, and herd size and makeup. By spreading bales around, farmers can distribute fertilizer and hoof traffic across the pasture, or target problem areas like hillsides. Bale grazing changes soil conditions by creating protected, high-nutrient, mulched areas for seeds to grow.
Adam Ledvina bale-grazes goats on pasture using baled prairie grasses that he unspools to create long strips of hay (which he refers to as the bale tracks). In this trial, he was curious to learn how animal traffic near the unspooled bales affected soil properties like compaction and nutrient content. He also wondered if that traffic would affect diversity of plants in the pasture.
Sprouted Grain Feed Supplementation for Lactating Goats
When goat does produce milk, whether for dairy production or feeding kids, they’re under high metabolic load. Supplementing their diets during this stressful period could improve the mothers’ health. It could also potentially increase how much milk they produce, the quality of the milk or both. To find out, Adam Ledvina and Margaret Chamas fed sprouted grain as a supplemental fodder to does in the treatment group; all animals had access to the same base diet. Margaret would have measured dairy milk yield and quality, but her trial did not run to conclusion. Adam measured nursing kid weights at birth and at the end of a 30-day treatment period.
Can We Reduce N Rates to Corn and Improve ROI?
In the most recent round of nitrogen rate trials, 19 farmers across Iowa, Minnesota and Illinois took part in a total of 22 replicated strip trials to test whether they could reduce their nitrogen fertilizer rates while still maintaining strong yields and profitability. Many of these farmers have been using soil-health-promoting practices like cover crops, diversified rotations and no-till for at least five years. All cooperators chose their own nitrogen rate reductions, ranging from 8%
to 45% of their typical rates. Four of the farmers went a step further and included strips with
no applied nitrogen to investigate the nitrogen supply already in their soils. If farmers can maintain corn yields and save
money at the reduced rate, it will boost confidence in trying more sustainable approaches. And even if the reduced rate lowers corn yields and loses money, the trials still provide valuable learning by giving farmers better insights into what works best for their farm and how additional long-term practices could help reduce their nitrogen rates in the future.
Effect of Covering Brassicas Seeded for Transplant
Turning on the grow lights or the heater in the greenhouse is an exciting harbinger of spring for many vegetable farmers.
Because starting seedlings is a repetitive chore that takes a lot of time, energy and materials, it’s also an ideal practice to
experiment with as small changes could lead to big efficiency improvements. In a seed-starting trial conducted last spring, Jill Beebout, Hannah Breckbill and Emily Fagan, Natasha Hegmann and Pete Kerns, Roxane Mitten, and Carly and Ethan Zierke tested whether covering their brassica seeds with soil when starting them in trays affects germination rates and transplant viability.
Planting Date and Method for Overwintering Spinach
Overwintering spinach is the practice of insulating a fall-planted spinach crop through the winter. This practice produces an early-spring crop of sweet, delicious spinach. However, farmers routinely have questions about when and how to plant and manage spinach for overwintering, especially in increasingly volatile shoulder-season weather. In 2023, a group of PFI farmer-researchers wanted to continue their previous research investigating the best time to plant spinach for overwintering and test whether direct-seeding versus transplanting performed better. They direct-seeded and transplanted spinach between Sept. 1 and Sept. 14, 2023, and again between Sept. 21 and Oct. 5.
Biochar Seed Treatment for Corn
Biochar is a fine-grain charcoal material produced by heating organic materials such as wood or straw to a very high
temperature in the absence of oxygen. Biochar contains a high proportion of organic carbon (at least 10%). It physically and chemically holds onto nutrients and water quite well, and breaks down very slowly in soil conditions. Because of these qualities, farmers have been hearing a lot about using biochar either as a seed coating or as a more substantial soil amendment to enhance seedling establishment, plant growth and yields. In 2024, Jack Boyer, Robert Harvey and Rob Stout decided to test whether one biochar plus compost tea product, EarthBrew, affected their corn yield when used as a seed coating at the manufacturer’s recommended rate. All three farmers cited the potential to increase yields and improve profitability as the reason why they were interested in the trial.
Biostimulant Products’ Effects on Corn Yield
Biostimulants are a category of input separate from fertilizers and pesticides that are marketed as improving plant
performance. A range of biostimulant products is available, including various microbial cultures, coal extracts and plant and algae extracts. The biostimulants trialed in this project were products intended to introduce beneficial microbes to crops. The idea is that plants can harness the microbes’ biological processes to boost plant performance. Cooperators involved with this trial wanted to find out if biostimulant products improve corn yield, are cost-effective and let them potentially reduce their nitrogen fertilizer rate. The trial focused on three products: EnSoil Algae on Jack Boyer’s farm; Utrisha N on Robert Harvey’s farm; and Biolife Liquilife+ on Josh Hiemstra’s farm.
Two Types of Tarping To Suppress Weeds
Tarping is an increasingly common no-till method for preparing beds on vegetable farms. Farmers place and secure clear
or black plastic tarps on a bed and leave them out for at least a few weeks. Both types of tarp trap heat and moisture, allowing any seeds in the top layer of soil to germinate. With black “occultation,” or light-blocking tarps, heat and lack of light for photosynthesis kills cover crops and any germinating or existing weeds. With clear “solarization” tarps, direct sunlight heats the ground up enough to kill the plants and potentially sterilize ungerminated seeds. In 2024, Hannah Breckbill and Emily Fagan conducted a trial exploring how long they should leave a black tarp on to terminate annual weeds in late-May through June. Marlon Mormann conducted a trial comparing ground cover in plots where a clear tarp was used from mid-April through May with plots where no tarp was used.
Growing Tomatoes for Sale vs. Seed
Horticulture farmers sometimes grow seed for regional seed companies to diversify their enterprises or just to try
something new. But for farmers who have not grown seed before, it can be hard to tell if the payment they receive is
worth the labor and time required. This is especially true for a plant like tomato that needs post-harvest processing to
harvest the seeds. This year, Hannah Breckbill and Emily Fagan signed a contract to grow a
half-pound of KC 146 tomato seed for $225. They decided to compare the enterprise budgets of growing tomatoes
for sale versus growing tomatoes for seed. Through the trial, they tracked the time, labor and materials required for both enterprises over the course of the growing season