Mining Data From On-Farm Research Reports of the Ohio Agronomic Crops Team.

Meeting clientele needs through on-farm research has been an important mission of the Ohio State University Extension Agronomic Crops Team. During focus group meetings with clientele in 2003 and in 2010, on-farm research in regional areas was identified as an important contribution that could be provided. An annual summary of on-farm agronomic crops research was produced for ten years in either printed form as an Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center Circular or as a web publication. Currently we post the yearly results of our peer-evaluated reports on the team website: http://agcrops.osu.edu. Team members have been conducting on-farm research since 1997 for 326 total projects.

It would be beneficial for Agronomic Crops Team members to consider what's been accomplished with regard on-farm research, what topics have received attention, and perhaps just as important, what has not received attention. With regard to corn production most of the on-farm work involved tillage and fertility/manure projects. How much of this information has worked it's way into other publications? By identifying areas of research in which multiple on-farm studies has been performed, it may be possible to consolidate findings for various publications, ie. fact sheets, newsletter articles, trade magazine/newspaper articles, etc. Taken collectively over time, these studies represent a significant amount of effort and time. At the very least an assessment of what's been done might serve as a basis for impact statements and prioritizing future on-farm research efforts.