CO Water Center Grant Supports TAPS Farm Management Decision-Making Research
An interdisciplinary CSU team will mine extensive Testing Ag Performance Solutions competition data to explore relationships between input use efficiency and farm profitability.
A competitor points to a plot on a CSU-TAPS field layout, showing mini “farms” on a single competition field. The abundance of farm management decision-making data generated by a single TAPS competition makes the format ideal for research in linking precision agriculture strategies and input use efficiency with maintaining farm productivity and profitability. (Photo by Christine Hamilton)
Fort Collins, CO, May 13, 2025— The Colorado Water Center (CWC) at Colorado State University (CSU) recently awarded $24,981 to support research focused on Testing Ag Performance Solutions (TAPS) farming competition data from CSU-TAPS, and TAPS programs at Kansas State University and University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
The project, titled “Understanding profit and efficiency relationships through farm management competitions,” will be led by Tian Guo, assistant professor in the Department of Human Dimensions of Natural Resources, in CSU’s Warner College of Natural Resources.
The proposal is supported by a collaborative, interdisciplinary team including Guo, Joel Schneekloth, CSU Extension regional specialist in water, and Amy Kremen, associate director of the Irrigation Innovation Consortium (IIC) housed in the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences in the College of Agricultural Sciences, which operates the CSU-TAPS competition.
The team will model and examine how TAPS participant decisions affect the interplay of input use efficiency (water and nitrogen) and profitability. In TAPS, participants (competing as individuals or teams) typically make six management decisions throughout the growing season—selecting a corn hybrid, seeding rate, crop insurance, irrigation, marketing, and nitrogen amounts and timing—with these decisions applied by university staff to three plots randomly assigned to each team, within the same field.
"I am excited to apply social science methods to draw out key lessons from the competition on how decision-making and efficiency gains relate to profitability,” Guo said. “And to bring those insights directly to producers."
The one field, many “farms” format of the growing season-length TAPS competition crowd-sources the wide range of management decisions that farmers are likely to make on-farm, providing insight about which have proven the most fruitful in managing costs, while supporting productivity and profitability.
“A large database of information on management practices and impacts on yields and returns exists with the TAPS program,” Schneekloth pointed out. “A better understanding of these practices will help producers improve their management practices and understanding of the impacts that occur.”
The team anticipates being able to produce generalizable lessons from this work, thanks to analyzing data from several previous years’ competitions in three states.
“What we find out through this project will complement what we’ve been able to share so far at annual banquets and through project reports that highlight how individual TAPS competition teams have been successful,” said Kremen.
“Tapping in to TAPS data from three states for this project will help us gain and share a deeper understanding about profitable management pathways. That’s valuable not just for producers, but also for researchers and a broad range of ag sector stakeholders including ag technology companies, seed providers, and commodity groups.”
Launched in 2018, the Irrigation Innovation Consortium supports the development, testing and improvement of advanced irrigation management tools and strategies for water manager success, with a focus on agriculturally dependent, water-limited regions. Part of Colorado State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences, IIC projects include a multistate partnership that is supporting expansion of two producer-driven programs across the U.S.: Master Irrigator and Testing Ag Performance Solutions. IIC also operates the CSU-TAPS competition. Major contributions from the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Colorado Water Conservation Board support IIC’s work, along with contributions from additional local, regional, and national public and private partners. Find more at irrigationinnovationconsortium.org.