Cornhusker Economics August 17, 2022
UNL-TAPS Crowdsourcing Team Offers Public an Inside View
At the beginning of the 2022 production season, the University of Nebraska at Lincoln (UNL) Testing Ag Performance Solutions (TAPS) program kicked off the TAPS Crowdsourcing Team. Designed as an opportunity for the public to interact with the hands-on management of a TAPS sprinkler corn irrigated competition plot, the Crowdsourcing Team offers anyone a chance to be involved with the intricacies of crop production. Part of a multistate Conservation Innovation Grant (CIG) practicum, the Crowdsourcing Team is an online community that encourages learning through experience, as well as discussion with peers and professionals.
The TAPS Crowdsourcing Team is actively competing in the 2022 Sprinkler Irrigated Corn contest, contending directly with all traditionally competing participants. Throughout the season, followers of the online formatting, located on the TAPS website and the TAPS Twitter account, are invited to vote in online polls on the management of the six major decision areas of the traditional TAPS programming. So far, the TAPS Crowdsourcing Team has voted on 1) hybrid selection and 2) seeding rate; 3) crop insurance policy, unit type, and coverage level; preliminary and continued management of 4) nitrogen application timing and amount, and 5) irrigation timing and amount; and preliminary and continued bi-weekly management of 6) grain marketing. To see the full listing of selections made thus far by the TAPS Crowdsourcing Team, please see Table 1 below. The results of each polled decision are then directly applied to the #TAPSCrowd physical plots, located in the sprinkler irrigated cornfield, just east of the UNL West Central Research, Extension and Education Center (WCREEC) in North Platte, NE.
| Number | Decision | Final Selection |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Seed Company | With 37% of the votes, the #TAPSCrowd selected Pioneer. |
| 2 | Seed Variety | The #TAPSCrowd chose P1185AM with nearly half of the votes. |
| 3 | Population Density | The final decision for population density was 33,250 seeds per acre. |
| 4 | Pre-Plant Nitrogen | The majority of voters chose 60 pounds per acre. |
| 5 | Crop Insurance | Final decision of Yield Protection, Enterprise Units, at 80% coverage level. |
| 6 | Marketing (Futures) | #TAPSCrowd elected for Futures Contracts to be initiated at $7.20/bushel with 288k bushels to market. These bushels will be marketed via Futures only if and when markets achieve the selected trigger price point after team decision was finalized. |
| 7 | Marketing (HTA) | #TAPSCrowd elected for Hedge to Arrive (HTA) Contracts to be initiated at $7.20/bushel with 96k bushels to market. These bushels will be marketed via HTA only if and when markets achieve the selected trigger price point after team decision was finalized. |
| 8 | Marketing (Basis) | #TAPSCrowd elected for Basis Contracts to be initiated at NEGATIVE $0.20/bushel with 384k bushels to market. These bushels will be marketed via Basis only if and when markets achieve the selected trigger price point after team decision was finalized. |
| 9 | Marketing (Forward) | Bi-weekly polling will continue throughout the remainder of the contest season; if and when achieved by markets within bi-weekly window, a minimum of 10k bushels will be marketed at the trigger price point. Currently, the #TAPSCrowd has marketed 20k bushels at $5.90/bushel; 76k bushels remain available to market via Forward Contracts. |
| 10 | Irrigation | #TAPSCrowd will continue making weekly decisions on irrigation; opportunity opened on June 6 and the first irrigation was initiated on June 16. So far, the #TAPSCrowd has applied a total of 6.093" of irrigation to their contest plots. |
| 11 | Sidedress Nitrogen | The majority of voters chose 60 pounds per acre. |
| 12 | Fertigation #1 | The majority of voters chose 30 pounds per acre. |
| 13 | Fertigation #2 | The majority of voters chose 20 pounds per acre. |
| 14 | Fertigation #3 | The #TAPSCrowd decided not to apply any nitrogen at VT/R1 growth stage. |
| 15 | Fertigation #4 | The majority of voters chose 30 pounds per acre. |
Throughout, TAPS personnel worked to create, collect, and provide relevant information and insight on each of the polled decisions. Much of this content was developed by UNL specialists, such as field reports, behind-the-scenes sneak peeks, mid-season additional explanations of things like leaf tissue sampling, market overviews, irrigation tool exploration, plot tours, both fertigation and irrigation analyses, seed variety and trait package selection insights, and more. All related reporting, videos, etc., have been collected into one central location, which can be found and viewed on the TAPS site.
TAPS invites all to participate online in the 2022 TAPS Crowdsourcing Team and assist with elevating this public opportunity to prizeworthy heights, as this year’s competition season starts to wind down with growing season decisions in irrigation and nitrogen management. There will continue to be active polls in grain marketing management through the closeout of the TAPS competition at the end of November.
The TAPS Crowdsourcing Team is located on Twitter @UNL_TAPS, as well as the Crowdsourcing Collection on the TAPS site. For all additional TAPS related content, please visit taps.unl.edu.
Matt Stockton
Associate Professor
Department of Agricultural Economics
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
West Central Research and Extension Center
308-696-6713
matt.stockton@unl.edu
Krystle Rhoades
TAPS Program Manager
West Central Research and Extension Center
308-696-6700
krystle.rhoades@unl.edu
Tessa Burford
IT Research Technician
West Central Research and Extension Center
308-696-6713
tessa.burford@unl.edu