WSU Soil Fertility and Residue Management Lab develops and hosts the WSU Farmers network. The WSU Farmers Network is a platform for farmers to work with researchers for collaborative research and extension, advancement of input management, putting farmers’ on-farm data in use in farmers decision-making. The goal of farmers network is to provide research and extension programs to answer farmers’ questions, provide scientific insights to advance farming practices for better crop yield and quality, better soil health, and improved sustainability.
The core component is on-farm research and participatory learning.
A general steps of on-farm research include:
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- WSU researchers design research project for a particular question asked by the farmer
- Farmers implement the research with help from the researchers
- Farmers harvest and collect harvest data
- Researchers collect all other relevant data such as soil, weather, remote sensing imagery (satellite, drone, or airplane), topography data, field management data
- Researchers analyze the data.
We are currently working on developing software to automatize all aspect of the on-farm research so that farmers receive timely reports. Farmers and their consultants will be able to use these software/tool to conduct their own on-farm research and produce reports on their own. This software/tool will draw precision data from public domain and farmers precision equipment and require minimum hand input from farmers. The software/tool will use the most advance computation method and cyber-infrastructure, therefore, provide powerful decision-making service. We are seeking participants on various on-farm research projects to make these software/tool development possible. The more ground we cover, the better the software/tools is calibrated for your specific farm and field.
WSU Farmers Network hosts educational programs such as annual workshops, monthly webinars, field days, newspaper columns, and farmers’ lecture hall and virtual field days are being developed. We are currently selecting topics for monthly webinars and farmers’ lecture hall. Please feel free to suggest topics that you would like us to provide. Any topics that are important in your day-to-day farming, such as fertility management, soil health, crop residue management, humus and bio-stimulants, disease, pests, climate, etc. are all welcome.
For more information, please visit the podcast episode titled, “The WSU Farmers Network with Keith Curran“.
Contact Keith Curran at keith.curran@wsu.edu and Haiying Tao at haiying.tao@wsu.edu if you have any questions.