NC1210: Frontiers in On-Farm Experimentation

(Multistate Research Project)

Status: Active

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SAES-422 Reports

Annual/Termination Reports:

[03/03/2026]

Date of Annual Report: 03/03/2026

Report Information

Annual Meeting Dates: 01/05/2026 - 01/06/2026
Period the Report Covers: 01/07/2025 - 01/06/2026

Participants

Abban-Baidoo, Emmanuel – Auburn University
Ashworth, Amanda – USDA ARS
Becker, Talon – University of Illinois
Brorsen, Wade – Oklahoma State University
Bullock, David – University of Illinois
Castellano, Michael – Iowa State
Diss, Meagan – University of Illinois
Du, Qianqian – University of Illinois
Duncan, Hence – Oklahoma State
Eickholt, Scott – Invited Guest
Houin, Craig – Sunrise Cooperative
Jha, Gaurav – Kansas State University
Jones, Carli – University of Illinois
Lefever, Andrew – Penn State University
Leise, Adam – University of Nebraska Lincoln
Li, Xiaofei – Mississippi State University
Longchamps, Louis – Cornell
M. Bastos, Leonardo – University of Georgia
Miao, Yuxin – University of Minnesota
Mousavi, Mona – University of Nebraska Lincoln
Ortiz, Brenda – Auburn
Otterman, Helga – Invited Guest
Owens, Phillip – USDA ARS
Pires, Carlos – North Dakota State University
Price, Richard – Michigan State University Extension
Quinn, Dan – Purdue University
Retzlaff, Kim – Invited Guest
Rolsten, Spencer – Invited Guest
Setiyono, Tri – Louisiana State University
Shajahan, Sunoj – University of Illinois
Sheppard, John – Montana State
Simons, Herman – Olds College of Agriculture & Technology
Stechschulte, Logan – University of Illinois
Stevens, Julie – UNL
Sundquist, Aaron – Mitchell Technical College
Talbert, Blake – Invited Guest
Turco, Ron – Purdue University
Wahl, Scott – University of Illinois Contractor

Brief Summary of Minutes

The NC‑1210 annual meeting took place on January 5–6, 2026, in Tucson, Arizona, and included demonstration sessions, research reports, technical workshops, and strategic planning. Day 1 featured demonstrations of the difm.farm cyberinfrastructure, presentations on the backend, database systems, and analytic engine roadmap. Research reports covered multiple OFPE trial results, as well as provided valuable feedback from Crop Consultants and Producers. A working lunch provided IT updates on the platform. Afternoon activities included a hands‑on troubleshooting session for difm.farm, data workflows, and an extended discussion on project funding and future strategic needs. Day 2 presentations included updates from the Iowa Nitrogen Initiative, Alabama OPTIMA Fields Project, Purdue on-farm trial designs and results, satellite-based cotton Variable Rate Nitrogen Managment, and OFPE results from Olds College in Canada. The meeting ended with a discussion on the group’s future involving contracts, data sharing, partnerships, authorship, and where future activities will be headed.

Accomplishments

Platform Development & Infrastructure <ul style="font-weight: 400;"> <li>The difm.farm cyber-infrastructure was fully operational for all 2025 trials and used in designing and managing over 150 OFPE trials during the growing season.  The DIFM cyber-infrastructure is developed, operable, and publicly available at <a href="https://difm.farm/">https://difm.farm</a>.</li> <li>User base expanded to 405 active users across the U.S., Canada, and South Africa, reflecting wide adoption relevant to NC‑1210 objectives. </li> <li>System documentation was expanded, and technical handoff checklists were created to ensure long‑term sustainability. Improvements were made to database performance, administrative capability, and system reliability. </li> </ul> Extension, Outreach & Engagement <ul> <li>Training sessions and troubleshooting workshops increased user competency and improved quality of data uploads and analysis workflows.</li> </ul> <ul style="font-weight: 400;"> <li>Extension and crop‑advisor networks expanded, including continued involvement from community colleges and a new OFPE course supported by a $700,000 grant. </li> </ul> Plans for the Coming Year <ul style="font-weight: 400;"> <li>Develop user-facing tools for editing trial designs and uploading historical data.</li> <li>Continue analysis of 2025 trial data and generate farmer reports and full reports of trial results.</li> <li>Seek new federal and industry funding to sustain long-term project development.</li> <li>Expand Extension and Crop Consultant coordination to strengthen future use of the DIFM infrastructure and expand the network of users.</li> </ul> Short-Term Outcomes <ul style="font-weight: 400;"> <li>Successful completion of 150+ OFPE trials and large-scale post‑harvest data intake.</li> <li>Decreased processing failures reduced the need for manual troubleshooting by collaborators.</li> <li>Improved user proficiency following live demonstrations and troubleshooting workshops.</li> <li>Strengthened NC‑1210 network engagement, supported by a diverse group of 36 registered participants for this year's meeting.</li> </ul> Outputs <ul style="font-weight: 400;"> <li>The fully deployed difm.farm platform, including enhanced administrative and technical documentation.</li> <li>Research presentations and meeting outputs from January 5–6, 2026. </li> </ul> Activities <ul style="font-weight: 400;"> <li>Delivered a two-day NC-1210 multistate project meeting with demonstrations, research reports, troubleshooting sessions, and strategic planning for the future year. </li> <li>Conducted extensive OFPE trials across multiple U.S. regions and internationally, successfully integrated into difm.farm for 2025. </li> </ul> Milestones <ul> <li>Submit additional funding proposals amongst NC-1210 project members for long-term project sustainability.</li> </ul>

Publications

During this reporting period only -   Manuscripts published or forthcoming: Khanal, B., T. Mieno, K. Schoengold, and D. S. Bullock. “Optimizing Precision Conservation with On‑Farm Precision Experiment Data: The Role of Crop Insurance and Spatially Variable Profit.” Science of the Total Environment, 979 (April 2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2025.179315. Zhang, C., X. Li, T. Mieno, C. Diao, and D. S. Bullock. “Quadratic‑plateau geographically weighted regression model for estimating site‑specific economically optimal input rates.” Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, 237 (2025): 110655. Du, Q., T. Mieno, and D. S. Bullock. “Measuring the estimation bias of yield response to N using combined on‑farm experiment data.” Journal of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, 4(3) (2025): 321–332. Loewen, Sasha, and Bruce D. Maxwell. “Site‑specific weed management on organic grain farms using variable rate seeding and data‑driven simulation.” Weed Research 65, no.1 (2025): e12669. Smith, Harrison W., Christopher J. Heffernan, Amanda J. Ashworth, L. Lanier Nalley, David S. Bullock, Jason Tullis, and Phillip R. Owens. “Harvesting Insights: Interpretable Machine Learning to Understand Environmental Drivers of U.S. Maize and Soybean Yield.” Scientific Reports. Published online February 2026. Tibbs, R., N. Heller, D. S. Bullock, and M. A. Boerngen. “Midwestern Farmers’ Willingness to Engage with Precision Agriculture Technologies and On‑Farm Precision Experimentation.” Agronomy Journal. Accepted February 2026. Bullock, D. S., B. Edge, and T. Mieno. “Management Zones Should Be for Zone Management.” Agronomy Journal. Accepted February 2026.   Presentations: “A Proposal to the FY2025 NRCS CIGOFT Program” – DIFM/NC-1210 Annual Meeting, Clearwater, FL (Presenter: D.S. Bullock), 1/10/25 “Using On-farm Precision Experimentation to Incentivize Cost-effective Climate-Friendly Crop Research, Policy, and Production” – Opportunities for Extension in OFPE Conference, Clearwater, FL (Presenter: D.S. Bullock), 1/11/25 “A Higher Education Challenge (HEC) Grant Proposal” – Opportunities for Extension in OFPE Conference, Clearwater, FL (Presenter: D.S. Bullock), 1/11/25 “Opportunities in On-Farm Precision Experimentation with the DIFM Project” – Re:FARM Conference, Lviv, Ukraine (Presenter: D.S. Bullock), 2/12/25 “Opportunities in On-Farm Precision Experimentation with DIFM” – L’Agriculture de Précision Conference, Victoriaville, Quebec (Presenter: D.S. Bullock), 2/27/25 “Revolutionizing Agronomic Research through On-Farm Precision Experimentation” – NTU-CIA UIUC-CDA Joint Seminar (Presenter: D.S. Bullock), Virtual (Taipei), 4/30/25 “Opportunities in On-Farm Precision Experimentation with DIFM” – NRCS State Resource Conservationists Quarterly Teleconference (Presenter: D.S. Bullock), Virtual, 8/4/25 “Opportunities in On-Farm Precision Experimentation with DIFM” – McCain Inc. Sustainability Group (Presenter: D.S. Bullock), Virtual, 9/11/25 “Opportunities in On-Farm Precision Experimentation with DIFM” – Visiting Grand Farm Delegation (Presenter: D.S. Bullock), Urbana, IL, 9/18/25 “difm.farm: A Revolutionary System Helping Farmers Increase Profits” – Meeting with Nadia Cortez (Presenter: D.S. Bullock), Virtual, 9/23/25 “Reducing Nutrient Loss with difm.farm” – Illinois Sustainable Agriculture Partnership Policy Committee (Presenter: D.S. Bullock), Virtual, 10/24/25 “N Minus: A Nitrogen-Induced Profit-Loss Recovery Program” – DIFM/NC1210 Annual Meeting (Presenters: Mieno, Bullock, Du, Edge; delivered by Bullock), Tucson, AZ, 1/5/26

Impact Statements

NC1210’s work resulted in farmers and their advisors running approximately one hundred and fifty OFPEs in 2025. Those field trials were run in approximately twenty U.S. states, four Canadian provinces, South Africa and Brazil. The data generated by the field trials were gathered, processed, organized, managed and analyzed using the difm.farm cyber-infrastructure, and each grower received detailed reports on the management implications of their trials. Many farms will make management changes based on their data, and some will generate significant increase in profits as a result. NC1210’s work created the difm.farm cyber-infrastructure, and trained dozens of U.S. Extension personnel and Certified Crop Advisors in its use. As of March 2026, this training has resulted in Extension personnel beginning to work with dozens of U.S. farmers and crop consultants to conduct on-farm research in 2026. NC1210’s work in 2025 and earlier has resulted in a “snowballing” effect in on-farm precision experimentation. Interest is rapidly increasing all over the world. Indicators include the dozens of new farms, crop advising companies and extension personnel who have expressed commitments to run OFPEs in 2026.