Developing Resources to Address Measured Gaps in Basic Agriculture Research Interpretation in the North Central Region, 2017.

Dissemination of research is a primary component of serving the public through University Extension networks. Many times, agronomy research data is circulated to agriculture producers and interested partners in formal, scientific formats, making practical application challenging. Therefore, a North Central Region Agriculture and Natural Resources Academy program focus group conducted a survey to measure the understanding of research data targeted for farmers and agriculture professionals in South Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Kansas. The objective of the project was to gain a broad-spectrum understanding of agronomy extension constituents’ comprehension of basic statistics and valuation of different types of simple research data. Of the 1,165 returned surveys, approximately 92% of respondents identified as farmer/ranchers, and most (53%) people fell between the ages of 51-70. Of those who responded to the question, approximately 35% highly valued large plot replicated data, 23% placed ‘high value’ on large plot non-replicated trial data, and only 15% felt small plot replicated data was of high value. Just 44% of 1,066 question respondents said they felt confident in their understanding of ‘least significant difference’. These survey results have helped identify gaps in the understanding of basic research data in the north central region, and will be used to develop a resource package for both farmers/agriculture professionals and extension educators. Tools currently being developed will focus on the following topics: the value of replicated data, setting up research trials, the meaning of data variability, and interpreting data/sorting out high quality data. This resource package will be available to extension professionals in electronic slide show format, ready-to-use fact sheets, 1-2 minute video clips, and an article series. There is a gap in the publics’ basic interpretation of agronomic research data in the north central region that will be addressed by this resource package, to be published in 2018.