Stakeholders played a key role in the reverse field tour held on soil balancing last month at the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC) in Wooster, Ohio.
Hosting the unique two-day experiential field tour were a team of faculty and staff in the Department of Horticulture and Crop Science, the School of Environment and Natural Resources, and the Agricultural Technical Institute at The Ohio State University. The field tour is part of a USDA NIFA funded project to advance understanding of soil balancing methods and outcomes.
Utilizing a “reverse” field day approach over a standard field day structure centered on presentations, the research team facilitated informed conversations during the field tour and provided a packet of brief research summaries and other handouts to the participants for review prior to the tour.
Farmers, farm consultants, and university researchers from Ohio, Illinois, Michigan and Pennsylvania participated and visited nearby on-farm trials and research station plots, and engaged in lively conversations about research methods, how to interpret results and possible new research directions.
Read the full summary report on soil balancing and the reverse field day goals, the team’s findings and next steps.
Source: Caroline Brock, PhD, brock.238@osu.edu