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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This research was funded by Ceres Trust. In a Nutshell: Cereal rye is a common cover crop used in vegetable cropping systems. With crew members, Alayna Kuntz and Ella Ostedgaard, Kate Edwards evaluated hairy vetch as an alternative …
In a Nutshell: Vegetable farmers have begun to experiment with living mulches to suppress weeds due to issues sourcing weed-seed free straw and corn stover. In this experiment Kate Edwards and Mark Quee compared the use of a …
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 …
