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
This research was funded by Ceres Trust. In a Nutshell: Single or double-leader pruning are standard management for high tunnel heirloom tomatoes. Lee Matteson, however, wondered if caging heirlooms tomatoes and not pruning them would produce a greater …
This research was funded by Walton Family Foundation. In a Nutshell: Jack Boyer and Dick Sloan have found success for years using winter small grains like cereal rye and winter wheat as cover crops when seeded in the …
This research was funded by Ceres Trust. In a Nutshell: The objective of this trial was to determine which of several salad greens species are most cold tolerant for overwintering. Hannah Breckbill and Emily Fagan of Humble Hands …
In a Nutshell: Emery Davis wanted help with making a decision on whether or not to purchase soybeans with seed treatments in the future. He compared soybeans grown from seed treated with fungicides and a neonicotinoid with soybeans …
This research was funded by the Walton Family Foundation. In a Nutshell: Dick Sloan knows more cover crop biomass often equates to more soil health benefits. The objective of this trial was to determine whether applying modest amounts …
This research was funded by the Walton Family Foundation. In a Nutshell: Dick Sloan has experimented with clovers and other legume green manure cover crops over the past few years. In this trial he trained his focus on …
This research was funded by the Walton Family Foundation. In a Nutshell: In recent years, Dick Sloan has been evaluating his use of insecticide (neonicotinoid) seed treatments for soybeans in on-farm trials and has found no improvement in …
This research was funded by Ceres Trust. In a Nutshell: Hannah Breckbill and Emily Fagan of Humble Hands Harvest wondered if a soil primer (Rejuvenate) could improve the productivity of Napa cabbage. They also wondered if the soil …
This research was funded by USDA-NIFA, Walton Family Foundation, and Albert Lea Seed House. In A Nutshell: Eleven cereal rye varieties and one triticale variety were screened at four Iowa State University research farms. Key Findings: Across sites …
This research was funded by the Ceres Trust. In a Nutshell: Iowa producers Emily Fagan and Hannah Breckbill of Humble Hands Farm, and Jon Yagla of The Millet Seed farm wished to sharpen their understanding of the optimum …
This research was funded by the Walton Family Foundation. In a Nutshell: Dick Sloan has been raising his own cereal rye cover crop seed on the farm for a few years. He was curious to learn if applying …
This research was funded by USDA-NIFA, Walton Family Foundation, Albert Lea Seed House, Welter Seed and Honey Co., Meridian Seeds, SDSU Seed Foundation and Zabel Seeds. In a Nutshell: 17 oat varieties were screened at four Iowa State …
