Grand Farm’s Innovation Campus in Casselton, North Dakota, hosted 31 field plots managed by 22 partners from 18 organizations during the 2024 season. This collaborative environment was set up to enable industry leaders, startups, and researchers to develop, demonstrate, and validate cutting-edge technologies, products, and practices in a real-world farming setting.

2024 FIELD PLOTS OVERVIEW

The field plots at Grand Farm encompass a diverse range of focus areas, including biologicals, crop nutrition, crop protection, crop rotation, drainage tile systems, crop demonstrations, crop breeding research, equipment, and technology.

This year, the introduction of Startup Plots provided early-stage companies with the opportunity to test innovative products and technologies. Seven startups from the U.S. and Costa Rica are participating.

KEY PROJECTS AND COLLABORATIONS

Biologicals, Crop Nutrition, & Crop Protection

• Pivot Bio is evaluating the effects of their biological products on corn and wheat.
• Mosaic is conducting trials on corn to showcase advancements in fertilizer technology using biologicals and new methods to unlock nutrient availability.
• Earnest Ag is assessing the impact of biological seed treatments with reduced fertilizer rates on soybean production.

Crop Rotation And Drain Tile

• Anheuser-Busch is investigating how incorporating barley into soybean-corn rotations may affect soil in both drain-tiled and non-drain-tiled fields.
• KWS is exploring sustainable rotations and the effects of tiling on rye, sugar beets, corn, soybeans, and wheat.

Crop Demonstrations And Crop Breeding Research

• ADM is demonstrating edible bean production in North Dakota with six varieties each of pinto and black beans.
• SB&B is conducting multiple soybean trials and demonstrations.
• Thunder Seed is showcasing its U.S. and Canada lineups of corn, soybeans, wheat, and sunflowers.
• USDA ARS Fargo is engaged in a long-term study to evaluate experimental sunflower materials for resistance to head rot disease caused by Sclerotinia.

Equipment And Technology

• Susterre, in collaboration with Dr. Lindsay Malone from NDSU, is investigating the efficacy of planting soybeans using high-pressure water jet technology through varying depths of corn residue.
• NDSU’s Dr. Rex Sun is validating robots designed to manually remove kochia in sugar beets and other weeds in corn and soybeans.
• Crop Diagnostix is testing its gene expression analysis technology on corn plants.
• Grand Farm is creating a sensor sandbox on a soybean plot to demonstrate and showcase IoT sensor technology. Read more about the Sensor Sandbox here.