Marketing claims for agricultural products can report a range of data, some of which may be valid and important to your operation and some of which may not be. Evaluating the data to inform decision-making and purchases may require seeking additional data from the company or from reliable third-party research studies.
On-farm research offers opportunities for testing practices or products under grower field conditions, but how do you determine when the results are statistically different and reliable or due to other factors.
Reliable results from on-farm research often start with correct placement of randomized, replicated plots in your field. Soil type, topography, and other factors all need to be considered to ensure results are representative of the whole field.
How to set up a basic research study on your farm to provide reliable results from replicated studies with random placement of treatments in each replication.
If you’re in the midst of harvesting dry edible beans and considering how to improve harvest efficiencies, you may want to take a second look at transitioning to a direct harvest system.
