On-farm wheat research and education had become nonexistent in northwest Minnesota until the Minnesota Wheat Growers Research and Promotion Council pushed to increase its grower checkoff to help fund future projects.

In late 2009, growers voted to increase the wheat checkoff from 1 cent to 2 cents per bushel — the first increase in the fee in 30 years. The new rate took effect July 1, 2010, and helped provide funding for what has now become Minnesota Wheat’s On-Farm Research Network.

For the past five years, the research network has grown in size — from 15 growers in 2012 participating in 23 trial locations which focused on nitrogen, to 20 growers in 2016 with 27 trials that evaluated nitrogen, seeding rate and plant growth regulator in wheat.

Grower-funded and grower-driven, the network also receives financial support via grants, such as the Agriculture Growth, Research and Innovation crop research grant offer by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture.

“The initiative and willingness of the growers who have been in the OFRN through hosting trials or providing support has been essential to our success,” says Lauren Proulx, agronomist and On-Farm Research Network coordinator. “Without producers looking to improve wheat production, this network would not be what it is today.”

Network staff and volunteers, led by Proulx and Grant Mehring, Minnesota Wheat Research director, strive to develop on-farm research projects that fit into real-world constraints and acknowledge growers' demands and capabilities. Farm inputs for the research plots are applied either by participating growers with their equipment, or by local cooperatives with their machines. Plots are usually between 70 and 140 feet wide and from 1,000 feet to 2,000 feet long.

Growers are finding the effort worthwhile to participate.

“They are willing to do the work to get the answers, as long as they have enough time,” Proulx adds. “We try very hard to make the research run smoothly and efficiently for the ease of the participants.”

One new participant last year was fourth-generation crop and registered Angus cattle farmer Gary Purath of Red Lake Falls, who also sells seed for Pioneer. Purath has worked with on-farm corn plot trials for more than three decades with his seed business. Proulx approached him and asked if he would participate in the trial that would evaluate seeding rates with the wheat variety Bolles. He agreed and turned the project over to his farm employees, Eric Derosier and Jordan Chaput, to get it done. They seeded three replications, comparing 1 million, 1.5 million and 2 million seeds per acre.

“I appreciate the hard work and replications that on-farm research provides,” Purath says. “There are a lot of differences in on-farm management practices, and having research done on the farm adds relevance to what we do.”

To learn more about the research network’s on-farm seeding rate trial and other Minnesota wheat research, read tomorrow’s story on The Farmer website at the-farmer.com.