The past 9 years have been used to obtain
site-specific data and develop physical maps
of the 140-acre farm, with the greatest
detail developed for a 92-acre watershed
using 369 GPS-referenced sites on a
nonaligned grid. Maps are available or
being developed from various sampling
efforts that characterize crop yield and
economic returns, soil types, weed, seed
banks, populations of soilborne pathogens,
soil pH, carbon sequestration, soil water and
nitrogen supplies, nitrogen use efficiency
and precision N applications. This has been
achieved while producing a crop of hard red
spring wheat in 1999, spring barley in 2000,
and initiating six direct-seed cropping
system rotations starting in the fall of 2001
that have continued through today. This past year, an adjacent 160 ac were added to the overall Cook Agronomy Farm
bringing the total land area to 300 ac. This new acreage will provide much needed land for small plot research that can
complement larger scale cropping system efforts.