The MPSG On-Farm Network (OFN) has established 62 trials in 2025. Of those, 41 were soybean, 10 were field pea, nine were dry bean and two were faba bean.
All field pea trials have been harvested (as of September 5th) and dry bean harvest will commence very soon (Monday September 8). To date 15% of OFN trials have been harvested.
One of the goals this year was to have equal field pea trials and dry bean trials. Historically the OFN has had about double the number of field pea trials than dry bean trials and, with increasing dry bean acres and potentially higher profit margins compared to field pea, it was important to reflect this in allocating our resources.
For the first time in the OFN program, we have established both a dry bean row spacing and a dry bean seeding rate trial. Other first-time trials include a soybean on-farm precision experiment (soybean variable seeding rates), seeding/planting speed (5 mph,7 mph and 9 mph), soybean Boron (Solubar), Soybean starter Phosphorus (Alpine G-22) and soybean Nitrogen rates.
We are eagerly looking forward to seeing the results of these trials to help farmers make important management decisions and to improve their bottom line.