Mary (on proper) with OFRF’s Analysis & Training Program Director, Thelma Velez (left)
By Mary Hathaway, OFRF Analysis & Training Program Supervisor
Natural farmers are curious. Working with nature to develop an abundance of meals offers numerous alternatives to be taught and proceed to enhance farm manufacturing techniques. OFRF has been listening to farmers since our inception, and the fixed hum of curiosity, experimentation, and innovation has by no means diminished. In actual fact, as we’ve got labored with increasingly more farmer and researcher groups, we’ve heard farmers specific growing curiosity in exploring questions and testing out what is sensible for his or her operations.
The launch of our Farmer-Led Trial program
Urged on by farmers’ questions, and with encouragement from the great work of Sensible Farmers of Iowa (PFI) and Ecological Farmers Affiliation of Ontario (EFAO), OFRF took the leap to launch our Farmer-Led Trials (FLT) Program in 2024. This program helps natural farmers throughout the US who need to use the scientific methodology to trial concepts–within the hopes of studying the analysis course of and what works for them and their farm system.
It has now been two years of working with farmers on their trials, and we’re about to open functions for our third season. We began with our guidebook, “Farmers Information to Conducting On-Farm Analysis,” which offers sensible data, together with examples from farmers and ranchers conducting on-farm analysis, hyperlinks to extra sources, and worksheet templates for designing a sound analysis trial. It’s obtainable free of charge as a reference for any farmer or rancher eager to conduct their very own on-farm trials. Our purpose is to help farmers in conducting trials in a means that generates dependable information and actionable outcomes. We contemplate this free useful resource required studying for farmers that take part within the FLT Program, a 101, if you’ll. However like so a lot of my tactile mates, I be taught from doing. And there’s a lot of doing in farm trials!
Growing an on-farm trial
Trial plot map we developed with Ladies Trifecta Farm
Each on-farm trial begins with the farmer’s concepts–what have they been observing on their farm? What’s it that they hope to realize? We discuss by their concepts, their manufacturing system, and their targets. From there, we stroll by the seven core steps of organising an on-farm trial, as outlined within the Farmers Information. Collectively, we hone in on an applicable analysis query, develop the trial plan and provide you with a method for amassing the required information. OFRF continues to offer help all through the season, assembly with contributors by way of telephone two or 3 times after the plan is laid out, and serving to to guage outcomes and compile a closing report on the finish of the trial. As lots of the farmers uncover by the tip of the trial, the yr is just the start of a journey of testing out concepts. As soon as they get a behind-the-scenes peak and grasp how researchers may trial an thought and what that appears like for a farm they see limitless alternatives for continued investigation.
Managing contingencies with on-farm analysis
Life occurs, and as farmers know all too properly, climate actually occurs. In creating an on-farm trial, as with farming basically, there’s a plan, after which there may be what finally ends up taking place. Collectively, OFRF and the farmers create the plan, and we hope the timelines work and items all fall into place. However inevitably it is going to be a wetter or drier yr than anticipated, or livestock will get out and eat a part of the trial plot, or another surprising factor will happen. Farmers get used to this, and simply as with all different issues, they maintain transferring, pivoting and adapting to new conditions. It may be difficult to stay with a trial. What appeared enjoyable and thrilling initially of the season can change into far more tough to maintain up with halfway by the season, with dozens of different issues vying for a farmers consideration. Within the spring we like to plan and plot and scheme. Mid-season, when daylight lengthens with our workload, it’s an additional piece within the day’s puzzle to verify the information is collected and recorded, the marked out plots keep marked regardless of weeds or wind. Dedication at this level is what makes a trial profitable. There may be no outcomes with out correct information.
Analyzing information and studying collectively
Soil solarization in a excessive tunnel at Salad Days Farm
After months of rising, tending, and amassing data, ultimately the time comes within the season when all the information is in. The yields have been weighed, or soil moisture has been measured, or compaction has been calculated. Typically, that is when issues have slowed down for the season and farmers begin to have a bit extra respiratory room to replicate on outcomes. I’m not a statistical knowledgeable, however I’m fortunate to be paired with one. My colleague, Heather, works with the numbers, serving to boil down the information into comprehensible outcomes. We meet once more with the collaborating farmers to speak by what the numbers are saying, and what meaning for the farm. Many instances, the outcomes are stunning. For instance, a farmer examined soil solarization and we noticed microbial biomass bounce again faster than anticipated and the fungal-to-bacterial ratio turned up greater below solarization than in naked soil, which was not what we had hypothesized. Whether or not stunning or affirming of what we suspected, the trial outcomes are at all times informative. Again and again what we’ve got seen is studying–farmers studying one thing new about their farm, seeing information that confirms one thing they’d at all times suspected however weren’t certain was true, or understanding how one can apply the scientific methodology to their operation in approachable methods.
Whereas the entire farmers we’ve labored with have shared with us how a lot they discovered all through the on-farm trial course of, I do know that I’m studying from them as a lot as they’re from me. Every farmer teaches me a lot. There isn’t a restrict to the fascinating questions and considerate concerns that come up about what is occurring on natural farms throughout the nation, from the neighborhood stage right down to the microscopic. I solely want that I used to be capable of go to every farm in individual to attach extra deeply with the farmer, their operation, and their analysis questions.
The observations every farmer involves as they full their trials can usually be one of many largest outcomes, even past the precise trial outcomes. There’s something to setting a body round an object, akin to setting apart a sure plot for a trial, or committing to strolling an space of a subject extra usually to take information factors. There’s a lot to be gained from letting our gaze fall with extra consideration. As Tim Colby, FLT participant and farmer at Colby Farms put it, “We discovered rather a lot by doing this trial. This land continues to be fairly new to me. So, the trial put me out strolling the rows much more usually and changing into extra conversant in the soil and seeing the way it’s modified. So, that could be a tangible takeaway.”
Working with the farmers on these trials I’m additionally reminded how human all of us are–how arduous it’s to slim the questions down to check only one factor. The temptation to take action a lot without delay appears common. Nearly each farmer we’ve labored with initially desires to create an bold, all encompassing assertion. My work with OFRF is to assist floor us in science, and produce the scope of the trial right down to an achievable stage–a stage the place we are able to make a small, however correct assertion. However every assertion is sort of a brick, including one piece at a time to construct the muse of our understanding.
Trying forward
Tim Colby makes use of a pentrometer to measure soil compaction
As preparations start for the third yr of OFRF’s Farmer-Led Trials program, I discover myself humbled by the analysis questions and the outcomes. The beneficiant and genuine work every farmer is doing to care for his or her land and feed their areas whereas not harming the atmosphere is admirable. And the widespread curiosity amongst agriculturalists to raised perceive how issues work–on a macro and micro-system scale–is inspiring.
I’ve labored as a farmer, with farmers, and for farmers. It’s the thread that has tied my grownup profession collectively. I’m so grateful that on this position I get to be a small a part of a journey for farmers across the nation collaborating in OFRF’s FLT Program. Because the ripple of this program grows bigger with annually, we hope to see farmers we work with go on to construct resilient techniques, tackle extra sturdy trials akin to with a SARE grant, or work with a researcher from their state or area to assist construct the physique of information we have to push natural farming techniques into the forefront of manufacturing within the US. Like all of the farmers embarking on these trials with us, I do know that that is just the start, and there are such a lot of extra nice questions on the market to check.
Study extra
For those who’d prefer to learn extra concerning the farmers who’ve participated within the FLT program to this point, and what their trials have entailed, we’ve gathered a set of the tales and closing experiences from previous FLT Program contributors right here. For those who’re fascinated by collaborating in our subsequent FLT cohort, functions are open Oct Fifteenth-Dec third 2025 for the 2026 rising season. You may be taught extra about this system on our FLT web page, or be a part of our upcoming FLT Discussion board on Tuesday, October twenty first, 2025 to listen to from three former FLT farmer-researchers and achieve an summary of the on-farm trial course of.
