Farmer-Led Research
Research reports are written by Practical Farmers staff to ensure consistency and quality, and are available to view or download for free.
The Latest Research from PFI
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Summary Flame cultivation can be effective in killing weeds, including those growing in the crop row. Any positive effect on crop yields is through reduction of weed competition only. The cost per acre of flame cultivation is two-to-three …
In a way, weed management trials and cover crop trials belong together. A cover crop growing in a row crop field travels a fine line between failure and becoming a weed itself. On the other end of the …
PFI has completed three years of research on flax as an alternative crop. The research has been led by ISU’s Mary Wiedenhoeft and Margaret Smith along with graduate student Sarah Carlson. Over the course of the project, farmer …
Crown rust of oats is a plague that has been around as long as oats have been raised in the Midwest. It’s often invisible, but crown rust sometimes devastates the crop, as in 1996 in northeast Iowa. PFI …
Doug Alert and Margaret Smith (Hampton) grow soybeans once in their five-year rotation. They wondered whether under those conditions there is a significant benefit to inoculating soybean seed with a fresh dose of the Rhizobia bacteria that fix …
By Richard and Sharon Thompson “We started farming together in 1958 with the high inputs of purchased fertilizer, herbicides and insecticides that were required with the continuous corn program. In 1968 we changed back to a rotation of …
Sweetcorn is one of the most popular treats from the garden and an easy crop to grow for farmers accustomed to raising field corn. Unfortunately, sweetcorn isn’t easy to grow well because of the worms that often infest …
In 2007 Paul and Karen Mugge (Sutherland) carried on a line of questioning researched earlier by Kathleen Delate, ISU Organics Specialist. Paul wanted to know where to put flax in the crop rotation and how to prepare the …
Project Summary Six certified organic farmers and one conventional farmer tested three weed management strategies for flax at nine sites in 2005 and 2006. Drilled flax with no underseeding was compared to flax grown with alfalfa and with …
If there is anything we know for sure it is that tillage destroys weeds. Yes, but phrase it differently, and the truth shifts. Tillage can stimulate weeds. Repeated, light spring tillage is used to “wake up” – and …
The PFI research summary for 2001 reported on the composting project that PFI cooperators were carrying out with ISU scientists Tom Richard and Matt Liebman and graduate student Terry Loecke. The research had to do with the bedding-manure …
Sustainable farmers are often more concerned about corn’s nutritional quality for their livestock or their consumers than in, say, the crop’s characteristics as a feedstock for ethanol fermentation or how many transgenic traits are stacked into its DNA. …
