Six researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln are working on the USDA-NIFA-funded Data Intensive Farm Management (DIFM) project. DIFM is based at the University of Illinois, and also involves the Universities of Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maryland, and Illinois State. The overarching goal of the project is to collect production data after conducting large-scale, on-farm randomized input use field trials, and then using the information to inform growers of optimal input use practices to enhance their profits. DIFM researchers hope to find a win-win situation in which more efficient crop nutrient management both increases farm profits and water quality in the Mississippi River basin. The project is in its first year.

This week's Cornhusker Economics, Getting to Know Your Yield Response Better through Whole-Field Randomized Experiments, uses large scale, whole-field randomized data to examine yield response to nitrogen and seeding rate changes. Authors are Taro Mieno, assistant professor in the UNL Department of Agricultural Economics; and David Bullock, professor at the University of Illionois at Urbana-Champaign.

Continue reading this week's Cornhusker Economics.