Every year, CCPC provides dollars – as well as grower input and other resources – to a long list of projects to evaluate irrigation practices, alternative water-transfer methods, seed varieties, root structure, meat quality, farm safety, environmental impacts, biofuels and rotational fallowing, and more.
By teaming up with municipalities, businesses, universities, research facilities, and the state of Colorado, CCPC helps build on the continuous effort to bring more tools and knowledge to our producers, benefiting our first handlers, livestock producers, ethanol plants, and ultimately consumers. Research projects have varied over the years, but have focused on drought tolerance, crop disease mitigation, hybrid development, crop residue management, and other aspects of sustainability in agriculture.
CCPC focuses on various research projects through Colorado State and other land grant universities.
We have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in projects in which we collaborate with Colorado State University and other partners to help farmers grow more food, fuel and fiber with fewer resources.
· Add value or demand for field corn
· Improve soil health leading to increased production efficiency or economics
· Increase environmental or economic sustainability for producers
· Provide practical usefulness or value to growers
· Explore new uses for field corn
Soil health and sustainability are becoming more than buzzwords as consumers are demanding goods and services be sustainable in nature while continuing to build resilience into our soil ecosystems. Research projects look at how production practices are coupled to soil health, the economic, environmental, and social sustainability of the commodity produced, and the impact on carbon sequestration as carbon markets evolve. The overall goal is to provide data farmers need to adopt conservation practices that provide environmental and societal benefits while enhancing producer profitability.
Areas of priority:
· Reduced disturbance
· Plant diversity
· Continual living root
· Soil Armor
· Livestock integration
Water projects support and protect the ownership and/or management of water rights, water quality, efficient water resource management, state-wide data collection, and protection of the state’s agricultural land and water resources from permanent loss.
Areas of priority:
· Update quantification of consumptive use for new/current hybrids
· Improved water management; conservation, efficiency, quality, monitoring
· Water storage development
· Water resource availability for municipal use while sustaining ag production
· Consumptive use of companion crops
· Annual water budget with respects to cover crops, companion plants, tillage treatment etc.
· Quantification of infiltration and storage in minimal/no-till and cover crop/companion plant strategies
Livestock represents the largest market for corn. Increasing consumer demand should produce an opportunity for collaboration with industry partners and further strengthen the demand for a quality feed product. Sustainable meat requires a sustainable feed source.
Areas of priority are:
· Virtual fencing and collaring that would enable easy adoption of livestock integration into areas of corn production
· Biometric data that enables identification of palatability for varieties or treatments
· Quantification of livestock’s roll in the C cycle and soil organic matter formation
· Application of amendments that increase palatability of stover
Farming requires balancing water, nutrients, mechanization, biotechnology, land, and labor resources for efficient production. Production economics plus the demand for environmentally friendly practices compel farmers to look for new methods and technology to produce more with less. Production resource projects aid the development of technology, methods and practices that increase yields while maintaining the integrity of natural resources and support increased farm profitability.
Areas of priority:
· Nutrient management efficiency, particularly nitrogen
· Dryland farming – seed selection, tillage methods, herbicides, crop rotation, soil types
· GIS (geographic information systems) technologies Remote sensing
· Tools like Apps to help farmers utilize real time data
· Practical application and use of data results
· Cover cropping or companion cropping in dryland systems
· Population and yield- Can we reduce population and increase yield? Flex varieties etc.
