Grab & Go Research Templates: Event Series
Ever wanted to try a different crop, a different setup, or a different level of irrigation? If you want to find out how to optimize your operation, farmer-led research could be a great avenue! Have you ever wanted to conduct research on your own farm? These Grab & Go templates make it easy!
The past few weeks, KBFA has featured these templates in our webinar series to promote farmer led on-farm research. If you missed the events, we’ve got you covered with all the highlights and recordings here:
Part 1: Indicators of Soil Health & On-Farm Measurements
Most farms have a goal for improving soil health whether that is physical, chemical or biological improvements and it can be challenging to know what to measure to realize if these goals are being met. At this online interactive session, participants heard from soil researchers about why soil water infiltration is a good indicator of an agricultural soil’s physical properties and how to measure progress over time.
Part 2: Seeding Rates and On-Farm Measurements
Crop selection and seeding rates are an important strategy for optimizing yield. With the broad range of growing conditions in the Kootenays from soils to climate, each farm needs to make their own decisions based on individual farm circumstances and goals. At this event, we will hear producers who have experimented with seeding rates to hear what strategies they suggest to measure success and get the seeding rate right for your farm.
Part 3: How to Design Your Own On-Farm Research Project
This workshop allowed for producers to discuss challenges and opportunities for your farm and farm production. During this workshop, Dr. Catherine Tarasoff walked producers producers through potential research ideas and shared templates to help guide your work. During this workshop, Dr. Catherine Tarasoff supports producers to work through ideas and share templates to help guide your work. Producers used this session to brainstorm research ideas and share with others.
Grab & Go Templates
Templates are a great place to get started conducting on-farm tests to refine your operation and increase your production! The templates provide guidance on deciding what to test, finding the best location for the test plots, laying out the test plots, collecting and analyzing data, and interpreting the results for your farm.
The three categories of templates are:
- Improving Soil Health Through Enhanced Water Filtration: this template introduces the value of adequate water infiltration for crop production and walks through the steps to carry out a research trial.
- Using Mulches to Reduce Water Use: This template introduces the value using mulches to reduce water use and adapt to hotter and drier conditions and walks through the steps to carry out a research trial.
- Testing New Crops: This template introduces the value of testing new crops to adapt to climate and walks through the steps to carry out a research trial.
Funding for the development of this event series and the research templates was developed in partnership with Climate & Agriculture Initiative BC.
