2026 CSU-TAPS Reaches Mid-Season!
The 2026 CSU-TAPS farm management competition field on July 23, 2026, the same day as the annual Field Day. Photo by CSU Ag Water Quality Program
Grow ag management skills and knowledge through a CSU-TAPS farm management competition!
What is TAPS? Colorado State University Testing Ag Performance Solutions (CSU-TAPS) is a sprinkler corn farm management competition focused on advancing precision agricultural management skills and knowledge through real-world decision making.
When is it held? Conducted throughout the growing season—spring, summer, and fall—teams make management decisions over time.
Where is it located? Everyone competes on the same field hosted at CSU’s Agricultural Research, Development, and Education Center (ARDEC) South Research Farm near Fort Collins, Colorado.
Who competes? Participants include producers, students, seed dealers, commodity group reps, state and federal agency staff, university faculty, and more. They compete as individuals or on farmer-led teams.
How does it work?
Participants make 6 management decisions throughout the season: selecting a corn hybrid, seeding rate, crop insurance, irrigation and nitrogen amounts and timing, and crop marketing.
Decisions are entered into an online competition portal, and implemented by CSU staff on randomized, replicated plots in the TAPS field. With Internet access, you can compete from anywhere.
Teams receive extensive, live, crop, weather, and soil data to inform their decisions.
The field is equipped with a variable rate irrigation system that delivers water and nitrogen (as fertigation) according to team decisions.
Costs and returns are included in a comprehensive farm budget tool, available to each team, scaled to represent a crop grown on a 1,000-acre operation.
Competition events include a Spring Kickoff, Summer Field Day, and year-end Banquet celebration where winners are announced and official results released.
Why do it?
To test precision ag management strategies and decision-support tools that translate directly to real-world farm operations.
To demonstrate skill at effective decision making for profitable and input-use efficient farm management… and win!
Scroll down for the latest information about this year’s competition!
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Try this online corn cost of production calculator.
Download competition reports below.
2026 CSU-TAPS Competition Updates
On July 23, 2026, CSU-TAPS held its annual Field Day along with a new TAPS Tech & Partner Showcase, all at the competition field at CSU ARDEC South Research Farm in Fort Collins, Colorado. Photo by CSU Ag Water Quality Program
The CSU-TAPS 2026 Field was planted May 12, thanks to the CSU ARDEC crew! By May 23, we had emergence and by June 1, plants across the field were generally at V3 growth stage.
CSU-TAPS participants made their corn variety & seeding rate decisions by April 10. Their crop insurance and soil moisture sensor selections were due April 20.
Participants could begin making marketing decisions on March 27, the day of the 2026 CSU-TAPS Kickoff.
Results from competition field soil sampling in March allowed the CSU-TAPS crew to map soil management zones, and assign three random plots to each team. See the field layout at the ARDEC South research farm below.
The CSU-TAPS crew began installing competitor-selected soil moisture sensors June 4.
CSU-TAPS hosted a mid-season marketing webinar with Bryan Irey of Crossroads Cooperative on July 16, targeted at the competition and available to TAPS Network teams across the country.
On July 23, participants came to the field for the CSU-TAPS Field Day and TAPS Tech & Partner Showcase to get updates, visit their plots in the field, get hands-on with ag tech, and enjoy Rams Country Meats grilled hamburgers for lunch.
Irrigation and fertigation began in June and continued through the summer, dependent on drought conditions and rainfall. The final fertigation is in mid-August. Participants are making their final decisions before fall and harvest to come.
The year-end 2026 CSU-TAPS Banquet and celebration is scheduled for Saturday, January 9, 2027, at the CSU Lory Student Center Theater on the main campus in Fort Collins. Save the date!
CSU-TAPS Field Conditions
Weather Data:
Click here for CoAgMet weather station data based at ARDEC N, a few miles north of ARDEC S.
Click here for data from the “Fort Collins East” weather station managed by Northern Water located close to ARDEC S.
2026 CSU TAPS Year in Review —Coming!
2025 CSU TAPS Year in Review —Click on images for captions.
Photos by Omer Izrael, Amy Kremen, Wub Yilma, Christine Hamilton, and CSU Agricultural Water Quality Program (AWQP)
Many kinds of partner contributions make CSU-TAPS possible.
The Colorado Water Conservation Board and USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service provide major support.
TAPS FAQ
Q: What is TAPS’s overall purpose?
To understand, value, and encourage advanced farm management skills
To gain knowledge needed to address critical water and ag sustainability challenges through the competition experience and conducting cross-disciplinary, cutting-edge research
To support producers in testing and trusting a wide range of smart, conservation oriented ag management technologies and strategies
Q: What’s TAPS’s origin story? TAPS was developed by an innovative University of Nebraska team supported by producers, water managers, and others. The first TAPS competition was held in 2017 in North Platte, Nebraska.
Q: Are there other TAPS programs? Yes! CSU-TAPS is the newest installment of a growing network of active TAPS programs involving different crops (corn, sorghum, cotton, soybeans, peanuts, dryland wheat) in Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Florida, Alabama, Michigan, and Maryland.
Q: Why doesn’t TAPS take place on my farm? TAPS levels the playing field with competitors’ decisions applied to multiple, randomized plots within the same field. These plots are managed by university staff, who gather and share field data with all competing teams (soil nutrient status, weather, remote and direct sensing of soil moisture and crop vigor, plot photos, etc.).
This format facilitates comparison of and investigation into which team’s decisions turn out to be more productive, profitable, and/or input-use efficient, a comparison not possible with on-farm programs and competition, given the variation in soils, weather and other factors from farm to farm.