Harold Watters, Ohio State Univ. Extension, 24600 Storms Rd, Raymond, OH 43067-9740, Gregory LaBarge, 8770 State Rd. 108, Suite A, Suite A, Wauseon, OH 43567-8607, United States of America, Edwin Lentz, Ohio State Univ Extension, 820 Country Creek Dr., Findlay, OH 45840-0702, Peter Thomison, Ohio State Univ, Hort.& Crop Sci. Dept., 2021 Coffey Rd., Columbus, OH 43210-4068, and Robert Mullen, Ohio State Univ, Wooster, OH 44691.
Meeting clientele needs
through on-farm research projects has been an important relationship between
clientele and The Ohio State University Extension Agronomic Crops Team. During
focus group input from clientele in 2003, on-farm research in regional areas
was identified as an important contribution that could be provided. The closer to the farm that research
can be conducted the greater the confidence that clientele have in the results.
An annual summary of on-farm agronomic crops research has been 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.
Development of potential
on-farm trials comes from discussion of research needs at team meetings, from
discussions with state specialists, from discussion with local producers and
commodity group leaders. County Extension Agents choose projects that best fit
local needs, coordinate projects with cooperators, collect appropriate data and
prepare a final report for the project. Some projects are repeated across
several counties in different parts of the state.
Prepared reports are peer
reviewed by two peers generally two state specialist but in some cases a state
specialist and another agent. Reviews assure that adequate statistical analyses
are conducted and sound objectives are described. The completed report is then
posted on-line once the review process is complete.
The value of the on-farm
trials is three-fold. Agents gain experience with current issues, local
producers get access to research results and team members have credibility when
discussing practices with consultants, industry and producers. In addition the
projects help meet local research needs and build a larger base of research results
on given topics over a wider range of soil types and climatic conditions.
Handout (.ppt format, 344.0 kb)