Innovation has always been at the heart of farming. Dreaming, inventing, and experimenting with new tools, equipment, and products is what allows farmers to continue improving their operations. Our family of employees thrives on innovation too, which is why we developed the Practical Farm Research (PFR)® program. Today, Beck’s provides a truly comprehensive, innovative, and practical agronomic research program that helps farmers with decisions that can improve profitability. By evaluating hundreds of new management practices and inputs, we deliver unbiased agronomic data to help farmers make better decisions and increase profitability.
Each year, new technologies and management practices emerge, making it difficult for farmers to evaluate all the options. So, we do it for you. The research and agronomic results from the 500+ studies conducted across five states are then shared through our annual PFR book. In 2018 we included the results from our PFR Cooperators on-farm testing programs with Minnesota AgRevival, the University of Tennessee at Martin, and Murray State University in Kentucky. View prior PFR Books.
Did you know that our PFR Book is available online & is 100% searchable? We have studies dating back to 2016 available to you in a format that is easy to use and easy to narrow down to the location, crop and topic you are looking for! Check it out!
With over 400 pages of data and information in our PFR Book, we found that farmers were questioning where to begin and asking questions like "how do I know which product or practice to implement on my own acres?" It was because of questions like this that the PFR Proven™ concept was developed in the fall of 2016. A product or practice is designated as PFR Proven if it has provided a positive yield increase during three or more years of testing and averages a positive return on investment (products only) during that time. While these products and practices have worked on our PFR acres, they should be considered a starting point on your own farm.
Throughout the year, we encounter questions regarding what’s happening in the field, the agronomic why, and do we have any PFR studies addressing this issue? Submit your questions by using #AskPFR on social media or emailing your questions directly. View previous #AskPFR videos here.
The 300 bushel barrier was first achieved in the early 90's at Beck's headquarters in Atlanta, IN. Since then, we've continued to test methods and strategies to increase yields in PFR. In the fall of 2016, Sonny Beck challenged the PFR team to raise 400 Bu./A. corn within the next five years. With this goal in mind, tile drainage, drip irrigation, and linear irrigation are all going to be used in this study to get the crop the appropriate amount of moisture and nutrition to the plant to hopefully get the plant what it needs, when it needs it.
Results from a single site are informative about the results of that year’s weather on that particular soil. Multi-location, multi-year data allows us to observe long-term trends and gain a much broader perspective.