With new competitions, expanded locations and continued growth in producer engagement, the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Testing Ag Performance Solutions (TAPS) program marked another year of innovation in 2025. Participants across Nebraska and the region tested their management strategies in a diverse lineup of farm competitions designed to help producers explore efficiency, profitability and technology adoption in real-world cropping systems.
These achievements will be celebrated during the ninth annual UNL-TAPS Awards Banquet, scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026, at the Younes Conference Center in Kearney, Nebraska. The evening begins with a social hour at 5 p.m., followed by dinner and the awards program at 6 p.m. The banquet offers competitors, industry partners, faculty and organizers a chance to reconnect and reflect on this year’s results, continuing the peer-to-peer learning that has always been central to the TAPS experience.
Following dinner, UNL-TAPS organizers will share insights from the 2025 competitions and recognize top performers across the program.
2025 Competition Lineup
This year’s program included a mix of long-running contests and new opportunities, representing TAPS’ growing footprint across Nebraska:
Sprinkler Corn Competitions
- Ninth annual sprinkler irrigated corn at the West Central Research, Extension and Education Center (WCREEC) in North Platte
- Sprinkler irrigated continuous corn at WCREEC
- New: First-ever sprinkler irrigated corn competition at the Eastern Nebraska Research, Extension and Education Center (ENREEC) near Mead
Tidal Grow–Sponsored ENREEC Corn Division
A secondary corn competition at ENREEC, sponsored by Tidal Grow, featured a custom award lineup focused on input efficiency using biological products.
Irrigated Soybean Competition
The soybean competition was conducted at ENREEC for the second year, continuing one of the program’s most consistently competitive and popular contests.
New: Irrigated Food Grade Corn Competition
A major addition to this year’s program was the first annual UNL-TAPS Irrigated Food Grade Corn Farm Management Competition, held at the Bayer Water Utilization Learning Center near Gothenburg, Nebraska. Sponsored by Bayer with support from Frito-Lay/PepsiCo, the new competition gave participants an opportunity to manage food-grade corn under irrigated conditions, adding a value-chain component to the TAPS portfolio and establishing a new partnership between university research and the food industry.
For the 2025 competitions, teams were evaluated in three primary areas: most profitable, highest input use efficiency, and greatest grain yield. These categories reflect TAPS’ emphasis on both economic and agronomic performance, encouraging participants to balance risk management, production decisions and input costs.
The Tidal Grow–sponsored ENREEC corn division used a customized award structure focused on operational and sustainability outcomes, recognizing teams for lowest cost of production, highest input use efficiency, greatest grain yield and an additional metric tied to carbon intensity.
The evening will also include presentation of the annual TAPS Advocate Award, honoring an individual, group or organization that made outstanding contributions to the program in 2025, as well as door prizes for attendees and a grand prize giveaway for a 2025 TAPS competitor.
For those traveling to the event, a block of rooms has been reserved at the Comfort Inn in Kearney for banquet attendees on Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026, at a rate of $144.95 (self-pay). Rooms not reserved will be released four weeks before the event, and the property offers a 24-hour cancellation policy. Check-in begins at 4 p.m., with check-out at noon the following day. Attendees may book rooms directly using the group reservation link.
Attendees are asked to register for the banquet in advance by completing the online registration form.
