CSU-TAPS (Testing Ag Performance Solutions)
Advancing ag management skills and knowledge through competition!
The purpose of TAPS is for all involved - participants, partners & staff - to gain and share knowledge relevant to successful implementation of profitable and input-use efficient agricultural farm management approaches.
In TAPS, competitors (individuals or teams) make 6 management decisions: selecting a corn hybrid, seeding rate, and crop insurance; as well as making irrigation and nitrogen management and marketing decisions throughout the growing season.
Team decisions are implemented on 3 randomized plots in the same field where crops are irrigated with a variable rate system. CSU-TAPS is hosted at a Colorado State University research farm in Fort Collins.
Just released! The 2024 CSU-TAPS Farm Management Competition Report features 2024 competition results, winners, and an informative program summary.
Our 2025 CSU-TAPS competition kick-off is March 28, 2025!
Check out the 2023 Farm Management Competition Report to learn more about the 2023 competition and contest results.
Photos from 2023: Pre-season probe install (March 28), TAPS competition kickoff (April 6), corn planting (May 2), corn emergence (week of May 15), Corn at ~V6 stage (June 21), first FarmFlight drone flight (June 28), corn at V8 stage (July 11), CSU-TAPS July 21 field day. Credit: Tim Martin, Paramveer Singh, Paul Nielsen, Ashley Patterson, Amy Kremen, Jason Menon
CSU-TAPS Competition Updates
CSU-TAPS participants made their corn variety, seeding rate, and crop insurance selections in April and May, and chose a soil moisture probe. The 2024 TAPS field was planted in early May and harvested in November.
Irrigation season opened June 12, 2024. Early on, teams could irrigate 1x/week, up to 1 inch, in increments of 0.05”. Teams will make Nitrogen (N) decisions through the summer, which will be implemented side by side on 3 random plots at the Ag Research, Development and Education (ARDEC) South research farm, northeast of Fort Collins (see field layout, right). Team decisions for sidedress N were implemented the week of July 8.
Participants also made marketing decisions from April to November.
Team costs and returns are included in a comprehensive farm budget, with values scaled to represent a crop grown on a 1,000-acre operation.
CSU-TAPS Field Conditions
The weather station data to the right is located close to ARDEC S close to the TAPS field.
Click here for additional info from this station. Thanks to Eduardo Gutierrez-Rodriguez for providing access to this data.
Additional weather data:
Click here for CoAgMet weather station data based at ARDEC N, a few miles north of ARDEC S.
Click here for data from the “Fort Collins East” weather station managed by Northern Water located close to ARDEC S.
TAPS FAQ
Q: What is TAPS’s overall purpose?
To understand, value, and encourage advanced farm management skill
To gain knowledge needed to address critical water and ag sustainability challenges, in part through conducting cross-disciplinary, cutting-edge research
To support producers in testing and trusting a wide range of smart, conservation oriented ag management technologies and strategies
Q: What’s TAPS’s origin story? TAPS was developed by a phenomenal Univ. of Nebraska team supported by producers, water managers, and others. The first TAPS competition was held in 2017 in North Platte, NE.
Q: Are there other TAPS programs? Yes! CSU-TAPS is the newest installment of a growing network of active TAPS programs involving different crops (corn, sorghum, cotton, dryland wheat) in Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Florida, and Alabama.
Q: Why doesn’t TAPS take place on my farm? TAPS “levels the playing field” with competitors’ decisions applied in 3 random plots in the same field at a research farm. University staff do all the field work, and gather and share field data with all competing teams (weather, remote and direct sensing, etc.).
This format facilitates the comparison and analysis of team management decisions to determine which sets of decisions are more productive, profitable, and/or input-use efficient, as well as why. Given on-farm variation with soils, weather and other factors, such comparison is not possible through a “traditional” on-farm competition.
Thanks to participants, partners & sponsors!
CSU-TAPS is made possible thanks to a wide range of partner contributions.
The Colorado Water Conservation Board and NRCS provide major support.
