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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In a Nutshell: Strategies are needed to offset the cost of cover crops that precede corn while minimizing yield drag and seedling diseases and maximizing cover crop benefits. In the second year of a two-year project, four cooperators …
This research was funded by the Walton Family Foundation. In a Nutshell: The objective of this trial was to determine the effect of seeding a cereal rye companion cover crop just prior to planting organic soybeans on weed …
This research was funded by The Cedar Tree Foundation. In a Nutshell: There are close to 1.7 million acres of CRP land in Iowa, much of which could be utilized as grazing land, but strict grazing restrictions apply. …
This project was funded by Ceres Trust In a Nutshell: Maja & Carmen Black and Natasha Hegmann were interested in learning the impact of double-leader pruning on tomato yield and labor-time in their high tunnels. Cooperators measured data …
This project was funded by Ceres Trust In a Nutshell In this experiment, Alice McGary compared four bed preparation techniques for broccoli in order to reduce the soil compaction. McGary measured soil bulk density, soil penetration resistance (compaction), …
In a Nutshell: Jack Boyer, Eric Fynaardt, Kevin Holl and Rob Stout each conducted strip trials to test the effect of cereal rye cover crop termination date on corn disease pressure and corn yield. They each compared terminating …
This research was funded by the Walton Family Foundation. In a Nutshell: Jon Bakehouse and Sam Bennett are interested in maximizing the benefits of cover crops to their soil, livestock, weed management and bottom lines. The objective of …
This research was funded by Ceres Trust. In a Nutshell: Spinach is a popular cool-season vegetable, so Kate Edwards, Bonnie Riggan, Hannah Breckbill and Emily Fagan wanted to determine which spinach variety (Bloomsdale, Kolibri or Space) grew the …
This research was funded by Walton Family Foundation. In a Nutshell: Doug Alert and Margaret Smith typically co-seed oats with a red clover cover underseeding in their organic production system. Concerned about weed control, they were curious to …
This research was funded by Ceres Trust. In a Nutshell: Hannah Breckbill, Emily Fagan and Jon Yagla wanted to see which potting soil produced the best transplants in each of their farms’ production systems, in order to determine …
This project was funded by Ceres: Cluster In a Nutshell In the first year of the trial, Maja and Carmen Black were interested to see if there was a difference in the weight gain of the lambs between …
This project was funded by Ceres Trust. Structured observation of nectar resources (flowers) on one PFI farm reveals patterns of flower abundance and diversity that could influence farm management decisions to benefit pollinators. Background The objective of this …
