Stiles Farm is an commercial farm, but also hosts many on farm demonstrations and research projects to test new technologies, farming methods or equipment. Stiles Farm shares the results and knowledge learned with local producers. By using the farm as a test site, Stiles Farm stays at the forefront of farming technology and can educate producers based on actual experience.
For instance, in 2017 Stiles Farm partnered with:
- AgriLife Research and Extension scientists to evaluate corn, grain sorghum, wheat, canola and oat varieties, as well as fertilizer and weed control options and unmanned aerial vehicle use in cotton root rot management.
- Syngenta Crop Protection in evaluating herbicide options for corn
- Sesaco on sesame production in the Blacklands
As Stiles Farm plans for the future, crop research priorities will be precision agriculture (e.g. precision planting, variable rate fertilizer, veris mapping, swath control, data management, etc.) and conservation tillage (e.g. strip till vs. no till).
Current Research Project Summaries
Small Grains
The Small Grains and Cool-season Oilseed Extension program regularly conducts small grains variety trials on Stiles Farm Foundation. Hard red winter wheat and oat variety trials have been planted and harvested for more than four years, and spring and winter malt barley trials have been conducted for three years running. In addition to small grains, a winter canola variety trial was conducted for the first time in 2014, with the intention of continued testing to identify adapted varieties to diversify cropping systems. In 2015 another cropping systems study was initiated to evaluate impacts of different tillage treatments on winter wheat production and soil health. It was also used to identify viable double crop options for growers and whether tillage practices influence the success rate of double cropping after wheat in the Texas Blacklands. Intentions are for this to be a long term trial to allow for full assessment of tillage impacts on soil health over time. Wheat data was included in our 2015 wheat variety trial publication on the AgriLife variety testing website. The canola results are also available for review.
Funding partners include:
- Wheat Variety Trial – Texas Wheat Producers Board
- Barley Variety Trial – Blacklands Malt, LLC
- Canola Variety Trial – NIFA-SAC grant
- Soil Health/Double Crop trial – NRCS-CIG grant
Please contact Clark Neely, Assistant Professor and Extension Small Grains and Oilseeds Specialist, with any questions.
Corn & Grain Sorghum
Click on the links below to view results of Corn and Grain Sorghum trials hosted at the Stiles Farm.
2015 grain sorghum performance trail.
2015 Williamson County replicated corn strip trial
2015 Williamson County replicated grain sorghum strip trial
Contact Ronnie Schnell, Assistant Professor and Extension Cropping System Specialist, with questions related to corn and grain sorghum trials.
Cotton
Review the 2015 Replicated Agronomic Cotton Evaluation Summary publication which gives detailed information and results from across the state. Contact Gaylon Morgan, Professor and State Cotton Extension Specialist, with any cotton production questions.
Partnership Opportunities
If you or your company would like to partner with Stiles Farm, we are looking for partnerships in:
- long term conservation tillage and cover crop research
- precision agriculture technologies
- Innovations in beef cattle production
- the economics of small acreage horticulture production in the blacklands
For partnership ideas, contact Ryan Collett at (512) 898-2214 or rmcollett@ag.tamu.edu.