TAPS & Master Irrigator
Supporting producers in using precision farm management strategies,
to maximize water and input use efficiency and farm profitability!
Testing Ag Performance Solutions
This unique farm management competition recognizes and rewards input use efficiency AND profitability.
Allows producers to test and try precision farming strategies and technologies, risk-free, in a growing-season long competition context.
Participants manage crop hybrid, seeding rate, irrigation, fertilization, insurance, and marketing decisions.
Decisions are supported by direct and remotely sensed data and models, and are implemented side-by-side in fields managed by university research farms.
“When it comes to trusting technology, TAPS is huge to help drive more comfort and reliability when you use those tools.”
Master Irrigator
This interactive, 4-day short course is for irrigators, crop managers, and others interested in effective water management and conservation.
Covers a wide range of management strategies that can improve efficiency AND profitability.
Networks producers with their peers and other water and ag industry experts.
Supports producers in setting and achieving production goals, and in accessing incentives for conservation-oriented investments on their operations.
“Instead of looking at my phone and saying, ‘Are the pivots all running?’ [after Master Irrigator] the other thing I think about is ‘Why are the pivots running?’”
About the TAPS + Master Irrigator collaborative initiative:
TAPS and Master Irrigator programs currently in operation or in development across the U.S.
Jointly-led by Colorado State University (via IIC) and Kansas State University, working with partners from University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Oklahoma State University, and Texas A&M University
Large-scale, collaborative project launched in the High Plains to expand two producer-focused programs, proven successful: Master Irrigator and Testing Ag Performance Solutions
Involves a multitude of public and private agricultural industry partners committed to supporting producers in navigating critical water-related challenges
Anticipated project outcomes:
Strengthen TAPS and MI programs to reach more producers and ag stakeholders, measure efficiency impacts, and inform policy from local to national scales
Understand potential return on investment connected to implementing precision and advanced agricultural management strategies and technologies
Link and engage crop and livestock production system partners to reduce risks posed by limited and declining water resources
Find Your TAPS
Become a Master Irrigator
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Colorado State University-TAPS
Sprinkler Corn Competition
2025: 25 teams, 75 participantsCSU is hosting its third TAPS farm management competition at CSU’s Ag Research, Development and Education (ARDEC) research farm facility in Fort Collins, Colorado. CSU-TAPS teams manage corn under a linear move irrigation system equipped with a precision variable rate irrigation system from Lindsay Corporation.
This year’s teams include producers from Colorado’s Front Range, Western Slope, and Eastern Plain. CSU-TAPS 2025 also has teams made up of Colorado Master Irrigator graduates, as well as staff from the Colorado Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources Conservation Service.
Two student teams are competing: one from Fort Morgan Community College in Sterling, Colorado, and another from the CSU Agronomy Club members. One producer-led team includes high school student members of FFA.
Competitors are responsible for six decisions: corn hybrid, seeding rate, crop insurance, irrigation and nitrogen decisions, and crop marketing. CSU-TAPS offers two irrigation tracks for competitors to choose from: full and limited. Both tracks have three award winners: most profitable, most input use efficient, and highest yield.
Annual events include a Spring Kickoff (this year on March 28); a Summer Field Day (this year TBD); and an Awards Banquet (January 10, 2026).
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Texas A&M University - TAPS - in development
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CO MI began in 2020 in the Republican River Basin in northeastern, Colorado. It expanded to the San Luis Valley in 2022, the Four Corners area in 2024, and added the Arkansas Valley and Delta Mesa in 2025, for a total five annual classes, statewide. The program plans to add a South Platte River Basin program in 2026. The program estimates impacting more than 200,000 acres across Colorado through the end of 2024.
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Launched in a developmental format in 2023, GA MI aims to help Georgia producers improve efficiency in irrigation management. Its sessions include hands-on training in advanced technologies such as soil moisture sensors, scheduling apps, interpreting data, and more. It runs under the UGA Extension Ag Water Team.
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Program development began Fall 2024 with (KS) Groundwater Management District 3, Kansas Geological Survey, Kansas State Engineer, and the Kansas Water Office, with additional engagement from beef and dairy interests such as the Kansas Livestock Association. Development has continued in Spring 2025.
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MIP is a three-day, in-person seminar for irrigators and irrigation professionals. Completing MIP is a requirement for agricultural operations to receive Irrigation Endorsement to the Minnesota Agricultural Water Quality Certification Program, through the Minnesota Department of Agriculture—with benefits in regulatory compliance, technical assistance, and more.
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Initially targeted to the Mississippi Delta region, Mississippi State University Extension launched MI in 2023. In response to grower feedback, the program has increased its hands-on sessions and includes a hybrid aspect, offering online modules for some aspects of the curriculum to be completed prior to the seminar.
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NE MI development began in 2024, with a meeting of statewide partners including local natural resources districts, state and federal agencies, and commodity and environmental organizations, and private ag industry partners. In 2025, the project implementation team held five curriculum design summits across NE on irrigation, soils, policy, and farm management.
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Master Irrigator Program from OSU Extension
OK MI includes classroom training, peer-to-peer exchange of information between producers, and field demonstrations. For graduates, the OSU Mobile Irrigation Laboratory provides free pumping energy and irrigation system audits and uniformity tests. Other graduate benefits include reimbursements on soil moisture sensor purchases.
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The North Plains Groundwater District in Dumas, Texas, originally founded the Master Irrigator program in 2016 to address water shortage in the Texas Panhandle. Operating annually since, the landmark program maintains a dynamic and relevant curriculum that continues to inspire program expansion.
“[TAPS] is a great opportunity to build datasets and correlations that show that something can be done [on your own operation] that you wouldn’t normally choose to do.”
“By the end of the first day, I was all in. I knew from what they were teaching me I was going to save a lot of money this next growing season.”