On-Farm Research

“Across 41 farm sites and five soil series in Central Ohio, woodland soils had consistently lower bulk density and penetration resistance and higher porosity than cropland or meadow, while no-till and minimum till fields showed no clear physical advantage over conventional tillage even after 15+ years. Soil organic carbon explained a moderate share of variation in porosity, bulk density, and compaction (R² ≥ 0.33), suggesting building SOC is the lever — and that structural gains from reduced tillage may take longer than 15 years to show up.”

“Paired on-farm sampling to 1 m across 22 regenerative vs. conventional field pairs in Iowa and southern Minnesota showed that historical sheet and rill erosion is a major driver of soil carbon differences; adding RUSLE2 erosion estimates to DayCent lifted agreement between measured and modeled SOC stocks from R² 0.27 to 0.74, especially on gentle 2–4° slopes.”

“Across 50 commercial corn-belt fields in Ohio and Indiana, manure application rate was the strongest and most consistent driver of better soil health across six indicators (organic matter, respiration, POX-C, protein, aggregate stability, bulk density). Reduced tillage helped soil protein and respiration but lowered POX-C, while living cover and crop diversity showed little measurable effect; soil texture explained much of the field-to-field variation, and using 5 years of management history predicted better than 3.”

“Across 26 on-farm Nebraska trials, foliar micronutrients rarely raised corn yield because soils were already sufficient — helping growers avoid unnecessary micronutrient spending.”

“A University of Nebraska-built cable-and-sensor robot measures entire corn fields in fine detail, compressing years of hand data-collection in breeding and agronomy trials into a single season.”

“Sensor-based N management cut nitrogen application by ~40 kg N/ha in corn with no yield loss across 57 Nebraska on-farm site-years (2015–2023). Benefits are greatest in moderate-to-high yield variability fields with coarser soils. Sensors showed no statistically significant gains in winter wheat. Profit probability exceeded 60% for corn across most price scenarios. Despite consistent evidence, only 11% of Nebraska producers currently use sensor-based approaches — indicating a technology transfer gap.”

“Creating a Successful Citizen Science Model to Detect and Report Invasive Species.”

“This paper examines the generalization of Tiebout’s model in our understanding of the forced environmental migration of the Great Planes farmers to California during the Dust Bowl period in 1931-1939.”

“Agroforestry in temperate-climate commercial agriculture: Feedback from agroforestry practitioners in the Mid-Atlantic United States.”

“Identify potential soil legacy effects and recovery time delays after land transformation and place those effects in the context of EGS tradeoffs.”

“Soil health and nutrient density: preliminary comparison of regenerative and conventional farming.”