Read about Bob Quinn's Farmer Led Trial project, which provided technical support to his team in their quest to develop hardy, high yielding, and nutritious white winter wheat.

Learn about the Farmer Led Trial conducted by Rhianna Simes, of Verdant Phoenix Farm. Rhianna investigated the impact of occultation tarping on soil health--read the final report here.

Read this final research report from OFRF and Jorge Reyes, a California wine grape grower who participated in the Farmer Led Trials program. Jorge conducted his own research trials on the effect on mulching on soil moisture.

Learn about this OFRF farmer-led research trial, conducted at Salad Days Farm. Farmer Maggie Dungan's project focused on the effects of soil solarization on soil microbiology.

Read this final research report from OFRF and The Green Things Collective, a Michigan vegetable farm operation that participated in the Farmer Led Trials program to better understand what impact row spacing had on radish and beet yield.

This final research report from OFRF and Lindsay Klaunig of Trouvaille Farm highlights farmer-led research conducted to investigate the effect of shade cloth on seed pepper production.

This final report from OFRF and A Different Chick Farm details findings from Tiffany Stanley's on-farm trial looking at the potential for on-farm compost to yield comparable results to commercial fertilizers.

In 2017, a participatory action research team from the University of Vermont initiated a study to identify the underlying causes […]

Organic farmers prioritize cover crops, but successful establishment in long-season cash crops, particularly in the upper Midwest, remains a challenge. […]

This project leveraged agricultural diversity to mitigate the recent attack of the invasive yellow-margined leaf beetle (Microtheca ochroloma) on leafy […]

In this project, we evaluated factors impacting productivity and product value in grain legume crops in semi-arid organic farms. Specifically, […]

A participatory on-farm research project was conducted on five certified organic coffee farms in the Kona district on the Island […]

The Farming Systems Trial (FST) at Pennsylvania’s Rodale Institute is the longest-running comparative ecological study of conventional and organic corn and soybean cropping systems in North America. This study, which utilizes data from the 34th consecutive year of Rodale’s Farming Systems Trial, analyzes SOC and TN for conventional and organic grain cropping systems.

Low soil fertility, intense weed pressure, and climate disruption threaten the economic viability of organic dryland wheat production in the western US. Previous OREI-funded research indicated that a one-time application of composted cattle manure + bedding can double soil organic carbon (SOC) and organic dryland wheat yields for at least 15 years after application. The current study explores this compost legacy effect in greater depth, its underlying mechanisms, and the scope and duration of benefits.

This study analyzes the impacts of organic management practices on soil health indicators within an organic corn/soybean/oat/alfalfa system and an organic pasture system both over time and in comparison to a conventional corn/soybean system.

The Vegetable Variety Navigator (VVN) is a database of public variety trial results that can be analyzed and visualized to inform growers about how a particular vegetable variety might perform compared to others in their location, region, or globally. The VVN currently allows for yield and quality comparisons among varieties of broccoli, cucumber, and sweet pepper using a meta-analysis of data from 288 public variety trial sources worldwide, and this research assessed the validity of the model.

In this study, 113 meta-analyses from around the globe were reviewed in order to assess broad impacts of crop management measures, soil and water measures, soil amendments, fertilizer use, and 4R (right source, rate, timing, and placement) fertilizer strategies on outcome metrics including crop yield, crop N and P, soil quality indicators, soil greenhouse gas emissions, and nutrient losses.

The Rodale Institute, a leader in modern hemp research, conducted a two-year field experiment evaluating the performance of four hemp varieties with the goal of better understanding the effects of hemp variety and environmental conditions on hemp growth, yield, and plant-fungal (mycorrhizal) interactions.

Research has shown that different cover crops can have varying impacts on soil health, potentially influencing the timeline for observing these changes. This study examined soil health in plots under conventional and recently transitioned organic management using four cover crop treatments (rye, radish, rye/vetch mix, and rye/vetch/radish mix) and a conventional fallow.

Integrating livestock into organic production systems can provide several benefits, including (1) improving soil health and structure, (2) boosting soil nutrient cycling and availability, (3) increasing crop yield, and (4) enhancing overall farm resiliency. This study assesses the impacts of poultry integration on soil health, crop yield, and weed/cover crop biomass in several vegetable crop rotations.