The University of Missouri Strip Trial Program provides an opportunity for growers to have research conducted on their own farm fields. This program is designed to provide statewide data about different production practices. Strip trials are easy to implement as the program uses growers’ yield monitor data as they harvest their crop. This allows growers to complete harvest without worrying about coordinating the harvest of plots with the University of Missouri.

Wayne Flanary, Field Specialist in Agronomy, commented, “I am asking growers to consider participating in a trial which fits their personal interest and expand the trial to find answers to growers’ problems in northwest Missouri. We have opportunities in corn nitrogen management, potash fertilizers, sulfur, soybean seed treatments and trials regarding cover crops. Also, we now have designs that we can apply to terraced land using statistical analysis. We get the GPS coordinates of the field, identify the farm equipment and head width of the harvest equipment, and then design the strips so they can be easily harvested.

“The trials are designed so to ensure the data can be used and combined to show the effects of different production practices across the state. The treatments consist of field length strips, and we can also design treatments which can be harvested across treatments. Another aspect of the program is the use of a drone to fly plots and record visual differences in the treatments during the growing season.”

If you would like to discuss this program and see if it fits your interests, call Wayne Flanary at the Buchanan County Extension Center at 816-279-1691 or cell phone 913-220-3670.