For the first time, top TAPS competitors from across the country are meeting in one field for a national competition — and producers can get an early look at the action during the TAPS National Competition Twilight Tour and Farm Duel on Thursday, Sept. 10 in Colby, Kansas.
The tour will offer a preview of the inaugural competition, where top-performing teams from TAPS programs across the country will compete side-by-side under the same field conditions and constraints. Registration for the Twilight Tour closes Friday, Aug. 28.
Held at the Kansas State University Northwest Research-Extension Center, the Twilight Tour will showcase the national competition plots along with the latest innovations in agronomy, irrigation, precision agriculture and on-farm decision-making. Participants can see technologies in action and connect with producers, industry representatives, researchers and Extension professionals from across the country.
The Twilight Tour begins at 4 p.m. at the Kansas State University Northwest Research-Extension Center. Participants can also attend an optional dinner at 6:30 p.m. at the City Limits Convention Center in Colby, where they can test their skills in the Farm Duel.
One Field, One National Competition
The TAPS National Competition brings together successful participants from TAPS programs across the country to test their management strategies on a common playing field. Each team manages a “farm” made up of replicated plots within the same field, where production conditions are held constant and the differences come down to management decisions.
Teams make decisions throughout the season on field technology, hybrid selection, seeding rate, irrigation timing and volume, nitrogen management, crop insurance and grain marketing. Those decisions are implemented as submitted, allowing participants and researchers to compare how different whole-farm management strategies perform under the same conditions.
Water management is a central component of the Colby competition. Teams operate under a capped irrigation allocation designed to reflect the groundwater constraints facing producers in western Kansas and other areas that depend on the High Plains Aquifer. The limitation requires competitors to consider how irrigation decisions interact with crop management, input costs, risk and potential returns.
“The goal isn’t to tell producers what to do,” said Daran Rudnick, director of sustainable irrigation and KSU-TAPS, in a TAPS Network press release. “It’s to create an environment where the best managers can test their decisions under real constraints and let the results speak for themselves.”
From Nebraska to the National Competition
Testing Ag Performance Solutions, or TAPS, began at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s West Central Research, Extension and Education Center in North Platte in 2017. The program uses farm management competitions as a platform for producers to test technologies and management strategies, compare their decisions with peers and evaluate the economic and agronomic results.
Since its launch in Nebraska, the TAPS model has expanded to programs in other states. The new National Competition builds on that growth by bringing top-performing teams together in one location, allowing management strategies developed under different regional conditions to be compared on the same field.
The Sept. 10 Twilight Tour is open to longtime TAPS participants as well as those new to the program. Registration is required by Friday, Aug. 28. Participants who have already registered for the TAPS National Fly-In do not need to register separately for the Twilight Tour.
For questions about the event, contact Renee Jones, 620-805-9045.
K-State’s University Northwest Research-Extension Center is located at 105 Experiment Farm Rd., Colby, KS 67701.
The City Limits Convention Center is located at 2227 S. Range Ave., Colby, KS 67701.
