Summertime CSU-TAPS Farm Competition Fun
The 2026 CSU-TAPS Field Day offered a summertime break on July 23 at CSU’s ARDEC South Research Farm.
Wub Yilma, CSU-TAPS precision irrigation manager, presented information at one of two “Field Insights Stations.” (Scroll down for a gallery of photos.)
All of us at CSU Testing Ag Performance Solutions wanted the 2026 CSU-TAPS Field Day to be a fun chance for our ag community to connect during an especially hard farming year, with its extended hot weather and water shortages...and our event on July 23 delivered!
We had over 85 attendees join us, including competition participants—producers, FFA high school students from the San Luis Valley, CSU students, and USDA-NRCS Greeley-Fort Collins office staff—alongside ag industry partners and CSU research colleagues. The day’s highlights included:
Detailed competition and research updates by CSU-TAPS Project Manager Omer Izrael
In-field insight stations comparing plots with different strategies.
CSU-TAPS Precision Irrigation Manager Wub Yilma showed how input management decisions can be assessed visually using NDVI maps. And Omer Izrael compared plots using very different irrigation and seeding rate strategies.CSU’s Ram Country Meats provided grilled burgers for a picnic lunch, graciously sponsored by Seitec Genetics.
The annual Field Day is an important part of the season-long sprinkler corn TAPS farm management competition. It gives competitors a chance to see their plots in person and to assess the in-field effects of their remote decisions and precision ag management strategies, so far.
There is wide variation in the decisions made across the competition, which is not unusual, and it is exciting to see the differences in the plots! For example, corn seeding rate decisions range from 16,000-35,000 among teams this year. And there’s an almost 6-inch difference between teams applying the most or least irrigation.
Fifteen CSU-TAPS ag industry partners took part in the TAPS Tech & Partner Showcase, giving competition participants a chance to engage with the industry and tech involved with TAPS.
New in 2026: CSU-TAPS Tech & Partner Showcase
For this year’s Field Day we added a TAPS Tech & Partner Showcase to give participants a chance to get hands-on with ag tech and ask questions of our ag industry supporters.
Showcase partners brought drones, a weeding robot, soil moisture sensors, satellite data, hybrid genetics experts, and much more! Guests visited partner display tables under tents, getting “Showcase cards” marked by partners to enter prize drawings at lunch.
Many thanks to these 15 ag partners who joined in and spent time with TAPS competitors:
Agroptics, AquaSpy, Beck’s Hybrids, BOPA Weeding Robot, Colorado Corn Promotion Council, CSU Ag Water Quality Program, CropX, Crossroads Cooperative, DEKALB, GoAnna Ag, GX Lab, Phytech, Seitec Genetics, Sentek USA, Till Insurance
We lucked into great weather for the day, starting out cool and overcast, followed by sunshine at lunch under tents, capped off with very welcome rain after we'd finished and packed everything up. We are grateful for the staff at the CSU Agricultural Research, Development, and Educational Center (ARDEC) where the CSU-TAPS competition is hosted. They pulled out all the stops to prep the ARDEC South Research Farm to make this beautiful facility extra welcoming. We couldn’t do this competition without them.
Thanks to all who support this growing Colorado TAPS community, which unites producers, ag industry, and researchers across our state and region to support farmers in managing input use efficiently and profitably. Thanks to all who came! And best of luck to this years’ competitors as we keep on rolling through irrigation season…
--Story by Christine Hamilton and Amy Kremen
—Photos by Ag Water Quality Program, Barnfly Productions, Amy Kremen, Christine Hamilton, Chris Pires
