Farm fields just outside of Columbus, Ohio, may look like an equipment playground during planting and harvest, but the work rooted in these fields is driven with a purpose.
“Efields is an on-farm research program that we really started out with in 2016 to bring together our industry partners – our farmers in Ohio and our researchers at Ohio State University (OSU) – to really drive and dig into questions that matter to farmers and can help them improve profit, profitability and efficiency on their farms,” says Elizabeth Hawkins, field specialist with OSU Extension.
From 39 trials in 2016 to 150 trials in progress today, the efields program is growing while digging into everything from high-speed planting to questions about compaction.
“We go back a few years and we did this study for a couple years looking at compaction effects of grain carts, and admittedly we did it under unfavorable conditions, but we were seeing yield reductions in the traffic lanes from the grain carts approaching 30% yield reductions,” says Scott Shearer, professor and chair, OSU Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering
He says the yield loss wasn’t just showing up the following year, but the research found the cut to yield continued to linger several years.
He says comparing tracks versus tires shows there’s a clear advantage for tracks when field conditions are poor, as he hopes the research OSU is doing today will help farmers make better decisions tomorrow.
“I’ll give you an example: IF and VF tires, both are great tire technologies, but one thing we’re learning now is you have to run them at the right inflation pressures,” explains Shearer. “So, it’s a tool that a farmer uses, and if they leave them inflated to 30 or 35 psi, they’re not going to see that benefit from that tire technology. And so, what we’re trying to do is get farmers to think about their situation, understand their axle loads, and then adjust the inflation pressures in the tire appropriately.”
He says the research found the new tire technologies allow the sidewalls of the tire to flex, which in turn, allows the tire to spread out over a larger area.
“There’s opportunities for fuel savings, but there’s also opportunities when we begin looking at what’s happening to the soil below the surface,” he says. “One of the things that we’re experiencing today are some compaction effects. They’re going as far into the soil as about 3’ or 3.5’, and we can come back in and mitigate with tillage but generally that’s only going to be 13” to 14” deep. So, what’s happening below that is what we’re getting very interested in right now and looking at the long-term effects.”
Shearer and the entire efields team goal isn’t to take data from one field or one area of the state. Instead, the team partners with farmers to do large-scale research and trials, allowing the team to dig up findings for all soil types.
“We’ve got farms that go from peat moss, to gravel, to black river bottoms all on the same pass,” says Dug Radcliffe, a farmer in central Ohio. “So rather than have flat, black fields where everything is consistent, we give them the opportunity to do things on farm with the variability that they need to make these tests work.”
Radcliffe and OSU’s partnership has grown over the past seven years, along with Radcliffe’s appreciation for the in-field research OSU continues to focus on.
“We always said that, if we do what we always did, we’re always going to get what we always got. So, we’re always trying to look towards a better return on investment,” he says.
From the research engineers to the other innovators at OSU, Radcliffe believes the research is already paying off on their farms.
“We’ve got some farms that we own south of here about 40 miles that is more black dirt and a lot of compaction from former owners,” he says. “We did some tiling work and we have some compaction issues. So, we did some variable depth, tillage with tires and tracks and really saw some neat things. And we see some improvement in our production from that.”
Radcliffe says he’s a believer in the OSU land grant system rooted in research.
“The respect that growers like me across the state have for things like this is tremendous,” he says. “We talk to people outside the university that ask questions about what we’re doing, what the results are, not only with the fields, but everything that efields is doing. I’m proud to be a part of that.”
It’s an efields success story, as Hawkins says OSU Extension’s goal is to help Ohio farmers prosper.
“Seeing the way Ohio farmers have embraced this program, and really partnered with us so that we can learn together to improve agriculture in Ohio, has been unbelievably exciting to see.”
The efields research is also digging into the most efficient planting speeds when planting with high-speed planters. Watch the U.S. Farm Report video to see Ohio State’s findings.
