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
Filter Research
PFI cooperators are evaluating open-pollinated corn varieties and varietal hybrids in cooperation with Walter Goldstein of the Michael Fields Agricultural Institute and with USDA and ISU corn breeders. Why go to all this trouble when hybrid corn is …
What is field history worth for fertility? Field history was important to several trials in 2002. The Dordt College Agricultural Stewardship Center raised corn on ground that in 2001 had grown either oats alone or oats with a …
Field crops aren’t the only things we grow in Iowa. More and more field crop producers are edging into the local farmers’ market with vegetables and fruits, and new farmers are entering agriculture through veggies as well. Many …
In 2002 cooperators evaluated naturally-derived treatments for parasites in sheep and in pigs. Frances ZacharakisJutz carried out sheep trials on the Solon farm where she lives with her parents Jeff and Susan. Frances also worked with Walt Ebert, …
Successful weed management is usually the result of strategic thinking: “If hoeing doesn’t work this year, I’ll…” “If the spring turns dry, we’ll…” Paul and Karen Mugge, Sutherland, must have set aside some time to think about strategy, …
Livestock husbandry has always been an art. Today many producers are moving into sustainable-type production systems designed to reduce animal stress and benefit the environment. At the same time, their markets and/or their philosophy may exclude antibiotics and …
One of the strengths of PFI on-farm research is that the program has enabled cooperators to pursue their own questions. Of course this means that trials are often one-ofa-kind, and PFI trial designs allow each experiment to stand …
Sometimes it’s not what you fertilize with but how you fertilize that’s important. With funding from the USDA SARE program, PFI has been comparing two competing philosophies, or paradigms, of fertility. One approach is to look at a …
Varieties and hybrids were mentioned earlier as part of trials by Angela Tedesco and Gary Guthrie, but the so-called field crops were also part of variety comparisons in 2001. Ron and LaDonna Brunk and Steve and Tara Beck-Brunk, …
Just for the record, lets remember the weather of spring, 2001. If you didn’t get the crops planted before May, chances are you didn’t get them planted until after May. The wet weather meant it was not a …
Gary and Nancy Guthrie, Nevada, have a CSA garden where new questions are always cropping up. In 2001, they addressed questions of fertility, specifically foliar fertilization. Gary had read that potatoes responded to a fish emulsion-kelp mix and …
Jeff Klinge, Farmersburg. Early in January 2000, when I was starting to make my plans for the coming crop year, the company that I decided to work with offered contracts on two varieties for organic soybeans: Vinton 81 …
