The 2022 TAPS Crowdsourcing Team is a new initiative depending entirely on the involvement of the public to make the decisions for a plot in the 2022 sprinkler corn competition. The online community has made the first of many decisions for the TAPS plot, which is physically located at the West Central Research, Extension, and Education Center (WCREEC) in North Platte, Nebraska.

TAPS is sharing informative and supporting content predominantly through its Twitter account and on the website to assist the public in making a series of decisions based on the six major decision areas of the farm management competition: hybrid selection, seeding rate, nitrogen management, irrigation management, crop insurance selection, and marketing of production. The public is encouraged to participate in the polls to vote for their chosen selections.

To date, the TAPS Crowdsourcing Team has determined a series of pre-plant decisions, including hybrid company, seed variety, population density and pre-plant nitrogen amount.

The hybrid company decision offered eight companies to choose from: Big Cob, Channel, Dekalb, DynaGro, Fontanelle, Hoegemeyer, Pioneer, and Seitec. Although each company received a portion of the votes, it was Pioneer that won with 37% of the votes.

With Pioneer selected, the next decision was which variety would be used. On the recommendation of the local Pioneer seed salesman, five varieties were offered: P0622AML, P1185AM, P1237AM, P1366AML and P1563AML. With nearly half of the votes, P1185AM was selected as the TAPS Crowdsourcing variety.

The poll for population density offered voters the chance to decide on a range from 32,000 to 36,000 seeds per acre. A tie occurred between 32,000 and 34,000 seeds per acre, with both receiving 33% of the votes, therefore the TAPS team chose to average all votes for population density. By averaging the votes, seeds per acre for the Crowdsourcing Team plot was determined to be 33,250.

So far, the most interesting result came from the decision for pre-plant nitrogen amount. Voters were able to choose from 0 to 180 pounds per acre in 30-pound increments. Receiving 45% of the vote was 60 pounds per acre, which will be used for the TAPS Crowdsourcing plot. The interesting part was that 120 pounds per acre was in second place, leading to the conclusion that there are many managerial differences when it comes to nitrogen application.

In the upcoming weeks of May, followers will be given the opportunity to learn more about crop insurance and marketing. The Crowdsourcing Team will be selecting the crop insurance package, as well as when and how much they would like to market their simulated grain.

The TAPS Crowdsourcing Team will compete in real time against all traditionally participating competitors of the 2022 TAPS sprinkler corn contest. The public is encouraged to join in making the variety of decisions throughout the summer by following the process on Twitter or by visiting the TAPS website.