I was never a fan of the science fair in school. How would I develop an experiment if I didn’t know what I was even looking for?

My brain just did not think that way. I wasn’t looking for the answer to anything. Science never was my strong suit.

However, in fifth grade, I had the idea to see how plants would grow in different light conditions. For some reason, this project scratched my brain in just the right way, and I was genuinely curious to see how light would affect plant growth.

It was one of those projects that showed me exactly what I predicted: The plants in low light conditions did not grow as well as those given more light. However, most on-farm trials are not this clear-cut.

Try it yourself

Perhaps you are like me and you don’t even know what you are looking to discover. Let’s take a step back and look at this from the outside. Did you notice that a soybean field yielded well with lower planting populations? Or maybe you opted for an additional fungicide pass, and it kept tar spot from running rampant. This growing season, it is time for you to put those simple observations to the test.

Rather than basing decisions off results that happened by chance, be intentional about designing a field trial. Luke Lightfoot of Tipton County, Ind., shares that running a field trial shows you if that one-off result you got is more than a fluke.

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“You can quantify it,” Lightfoot says. “You have your own data to say, ‘This is what is working on my farm.’”

Lightfoot designs his own trials to investigate claims made by a constant stream of new products. “You’ll gain six bushels with this product” or “This product can allow you to cut back on nitrogen” are examples of claims that he doesn’t want to trust until he tests products on a small portion of his own acreage.

“How was the test done?” Lightfoot says. “How do you know that number? How many times was it replicated? Nobody has those answers. And if they do have those answers, maybe they weren’t in the combine when that data was recorded. At least I know with my own eyes, with my own data, if this did or did not work on my operation.”

Start small

Cultivating your own data through on-farm trials does not mean you need to dish out hundreds of acres to be at the mercy of an experiment. However, you need to be strategic about acreage you set aside for trials.

Now is the time to decide what you want to test and start designing an experiment. Start with considering what you want to learn.

“Plan ahead on what things you want to learn from your data,” Lightfoot says. “Part of what I’ll do this winter is think about 2025 and what things I want to retest or relearn, and make sure that I have the products, fields and scenarios set up. Then, when I get busy in the spring, I don’t overlook putting that treatment in or marking where I put a product.”

Related:How to implement and refine strategic priorities

A little bit of planning can go a long way in finding answers that could save you time and money. Make this year a science fair and aim to have the winning project.