The Colorado State University Testing Ag Performance Solutions (CSU‑TAPS) team has been recognized with CSU’s 2026 Emerging Community Engagement Scholarship Award, which recognizes university‑community partnerships that demonstrate strong potential for long‑term impact, achievement, and scholarship.

Managed by the Irrigation Innovation Consortium (within the CSU Department of Soil and Crop Sciences) and hosted at CSU’s Agricultural Research, Development, and Education Center (ARDEC) South facility, CSU-TAPS delivers an annual sprinkler corn farming competition that challenges producers to unite conservation with profitability through input use efficient crop management and timely marketing decisions.

“This award reflects the strength of collaboration behind CSU-TAPS,” said Tim Martin, executive director of the Irrigation Innovation Consortium. “The competition would not be possible without the dedication of our CSU colleagues across multiple disciplines, the support of many industry partners, and the willing participation of our competitors who bring their expertise, creativity, and commitment to learning each season.”

Producer participants, industry partners, and CSU colleagues visited the competition field for the 2025 CSU-TAPS summer field day. *(photo by Chris Pires)*

The TAPS model—which involves university staff applying each team of participants’ decisions to a set of randomized, replicated plots in the same field—establishes a shared, open learning environment. It offers producers a chance to test precision agriculture technologies without incurring risk at their home operations.

It also doubles as a collaborative research framework and brings together farmers, ag industry partners, and researchers in support of the competition’s effort to investigate how precision management can be productive, such as in the timing and amount of irrigation and nitrogen applications.

Industry partners provide soil moisture sensors, seed hybrids, satellite imagery, and more. Major funding support comes from the USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service and the Colorado Water Conservation Board.

“Our competitors are at the heart of the program,” said Amy Kremen, associate director of the Irrigation Innovation Consortium. “Their engagement—along with the collaboration and trust built with partners and sponsors—creates a powerful space for innovation, applied research, and meaningful knowledge exchange that benefits agriculture well beyond this one field.”

CSU-TAPS’ collaboration extends to additional land grant universities that are part of a much larger, growing TAPS network of programs in 9 states that offer competitions focused on grain corn, food-grade corn, forage sorghum, soybeans, peanuts, and cotton. The network actively collaborates on program growth and development, industry partnerships, and research.

Martin and Kremen emphasize that this recognition belongs to the entire ag and university community supporting CSU-TAPS, from field operations to data analysis. Together, these partnerships continue to strengthen CSU‑TAPS as a platform for advancing agricultural sustainability and resilience.

For more information about CSU‑TAPS, visit www.irrigationinnovation.org/csu‑taps.

CSU‑TAPS Honored with CSU Emerging Community Engagement Scholarship Award