There will be a field day on Thursday to demonstrate and talk about the ongoing experiments at the Agricultural Engineering/Agronomy and Central Iowa research farms.

The focus of the discussion will be the Forecast and Assessment of Cropping sysTemS (FACTs) project.

The project helps farmers with their decision making and understanding the complexity of their soybean and corn fields.

“It’s a unique project because it is combining crop modeling with infield data collection,” said Dr.Licht, assistant professor of agronomy. “It provides some really good insights into how crop models perform but also how we can use them with crop production.”

FACTs works on developing a platform that does real time forecasting and evaluation of soil and crop dynamics.

Currently the project includes 9 sites with 33 cropping systems. These sites are all across Iowa.

Dr. Sotirios Archontoulis, assistant professor of agronomy, helps advise the Integrated Cropping Systems lab along with Dr.Michael Castellano.

This lab is a combination of two labs that deal with crop and soil science and they have been heavily involved in working on the FACTs project.

“When this project started 3 years ago, it was to validate to see if this approach works,” said Archontoulis. “We discovered that yes it works, not perfectly, but we are on the right track.”

It is very much still a work in progress but the progress has moved the project closer to the goals.

“With a little work here and there, this is the way we believe to go forward,” said Archontoulis.

In the lab, there is a group of graduate students who are working with professionals on the project as well.

 “We collaborate with the collection of plant and soil samples, as well as information collected from soil and weather sensors located in each of the research plots at each site,” said Carolina Cordova, member of the lab and Ph.D candidate in Soil Science.

In addition to talking about FACTs, the event will have multiple guest speakers to give specific details about soil nitrogen dynamics, climate conditions, and yield predictions.

This event is free to the public and will be held at 1308 U Avenue, Boone, IA. It begins at 9:30, with registration starting at 9, and ending at noon.

There will also be time for the public to interact with professionals and learn more about the FACTs project directly.

“It is very rewarding being part of this project and the Integrated Cropping Systems Lab,” said Carolina Cordova, member of the lab and Ph.D candidate in Soil Sciences.