Are you an organic or transitioning farmer or rancher who wants to test out a new agricultural practice on your farm?

OFRF’s Farmer-Led Trials program provides farmers with funding and technical assistance to investigate and learn about solutions to their most pressing production challenges. Read more to find out how you can be part of this program!

Farmer-Led Trials (FLT) Program Overview

OFRF believes in supporting organic farmers and ranchers in their constant search for innovation and farm profitability. The FLT program puts farmers in the driver’s seat, and recognizes their wisdom, experimentation and problem solving skills. Built in the spirit of curiosity and collaboration, this program will support farmers and ranchers in conducting impactful research that can address their unique challenges.

Organic farming and ranching takes dedication, financial investment, and a great deal of trial and error to adapt to a growing array of pest, disease, and soil health challenges. In order to address the challenges certified organic and transitioning-to-organic producers face, OFRF’s FLT program will provide support for on-farm learning trials aimed at testing new practices, inputs, varieties, or animal breeds that can improve profitability and environmental sustainability, leading to more resilient organic farms and ranches.

Why Farmer-Led Trials?

Research studies have shown that farmers greatly benefit when they lead on-farm research trials at their farms. Conducting your own research allows you to address your farm-specific questions, and has historically supported the adoption and innovation of sustainable agricultural practices across the world (Wettasinha, et al. 2014).

Program Goals

The goals of the FLT Program are to support farmers and ranchers in conducting practical, on-farm research that can address their farming challenges and to support farmer-led innovations in organic farming. While the FLT program includes direct technical and financial support, OFRF also aims to foster a broad community of farmer-researchers. Our recently released Farmers Guide to Conducting On-Farm Research (available now, free to download!) can be a reference for any farmer or rancher wanting to conduct their own on farm trials.

“On farm trials represent a powerful way for farmers to gain agency and support in solving our most pressing challenges.”

-April Thatcher, farmer at April Joy Farm, WA.

Priority topics for trial proposals include, but are not limited to the following areas:

  • Weed suppression
  • Maintaining or improving yields
  • Soil health
  • Cover crops 
  • Insect pest suppression
  • Disease suppression
  • Organic crop variety and seed trials
  • Organic livestock breeds and management

Eligibility

  • Eligible participants include any farmer or rancher in the U.S. or its territories who are relatively new to conducting on-farm research and are seeking to build confidence in their research skills.
  • Eligible farms produce food or fiber for sale. The program is not designed for farms that are a part of research institutions.
  • Farms must be certified organic or in transition to organic.  
  • Participants must have management abilities, lease, or ownership of the farm where trials are to occur. 
  • Priority will be given to Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC), veteran and beginning farmers.

Support from OFRF

Throughout the on-farm trial process, OFRF will provide technical assistance to help farmer-researchers refine their research questions, design their experiments, identify data collection protocols, analyze data, and present their findings. See the FAQ section below for more information. As part of the technical assistance support, OFRF is excited to share our Farmers Guide to Conducting On-Farm Research, which we encourage all applicants to read prior to submitting a proposal.

Additionally, farmer-researchers will receive a stipend total of $1,500, which can be used to pay for supplies, small equipment, data collection tools, testing or labor. 

Farmer-Researchers Commitment

Program participants are expected to:

  • Work closely with OFRF staff for the entire duration of the project, to refine research questions, design the trials, provide regular updates to OFRF, and share data and findings. 
  • Work with OFRF to develop and follow a project timeline that will contain all the important dates and activities throughout the trial. 
  • Regularly collect data and record findings for the project.
  • Take photos that depict the differences and observations among the treatments/trials and other relevant photos throughout the project. 
  • Agree to share their trial results openly. This may include: blog posts, pictures, webinar/video presentations, or other shareable media.
  • Help complete a final finding report and share project results via webinar and/or Farmer-Researcher Forum. OFRF will give dates and support for all project presentations.

Application Process

The application will emphasize the importance of a “good question”: something that is measurable, achievable, and will help the farmer answer a production challenge and learn more about conducting research on their farm. Farmers will be asked to describe their potential project through straightforward questions about their motivation, potential practices to test, measurements of interest, space available, potential challenges, other considerations, and how their trial fits the research priorities identified by OFRF. 

An example of a completed application can be found in the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section.  You can view the 2023 rubric form that reviewers use to evaluate your proposal (note, this rubric will be updated for 2024). For inspiration, other examples of on-farm research can be found on Appendix 4 of OFRF’s Farmers Guide to Conducting On-Farm Research.

Applications for the 2025 cohort accepted October 14th, 2024 through December 1st, 2024. 

The advisory committee will review proposals and notify successful applicants in January 2024. Farmer agreements will be signed prior to the start of the trial and the disbursement of funds. Those that are not selected for trials are encouraged to flesh out ideas based on the feedback received from the committee so they can apply again next year. 

For help in the application process, contact OFRF’s Research & Education Program Coordinator, Mary Hathaway. Email: mary@ofrf.org

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FLT Program FAQs

A good overview of any on-farm trial process is included in OFRF’s Farmers Guide to Conducting On-Farm Research. In this publication we break down the on-farm trial process in the following 7 steps. We recommend you check out this free publication for more in-depth information. 

  • Step 1: Identify your research question and hypothesis
  • Step 2: Identify what you will measure
  • Step 3: Choose an experimental design
  • Step 4: Choose your field and mark location of your plots
  • Step 5: Establish your trial and collect data
  • Step 6: Analyze your data
  • Step 7: Draw conclusions and share

The following image illustrates the seven steps of conducting an on-farm trial.

Program participants are expected to:

  • Work closely with OFRF staff for the entire duration of the project, to refine research questions, design the trials, provide regular updates to OFRF, and share data and findings. 
  • Work with OFRF to develop and follow a project timeline that will contain all the important dates and activities throughout the trial. 
  • Regularly collect data and record findings for the project.
  • Take photos that depict the differences and observations among the treatments/trials and other relevant photos throughout the project. 
  • Agree to share their trial results openly. This may include: blog posts, pictures, webinar/video presentations, or other shareable media.
  • Help complete a final finding report and share project results via webinar and/or Farmer Researcher Forum. OFRF will give dates and support for all project presentations.

Technical Support

  • Project Development
    • OFRF will host an online training workshop for on-farm trials providing an overview of research design. Fill out the interest form on this page to be notified. You can watch a recording of last year’s info session here.
    • OFRF’s Farmers Guide to Conducting On-Farm Research, will be used as a reference guide during the entire trial season. 
    • OFRF staff will help farmer-researchers refine their research questions and design their experiments. This will include development of research protocols as well as a project timeline. 
  • Data collection
    • OFRF staff will assist in the creation of a template for data collection that fits the research being conducted. 
    • Online methods for uploading data will be created, which may include: a google doc, excel spreadsheet, or google form. In cases where this is not practical or possible for farmers to use, all efforts will be made to make the reporting process streamlined.
  • Research Phase
    • OFRF will assist farmer-researchers with any technical issues, questions or processes that may arise. An OFRF contact person will be assigned to each farmer/project. One-on-one check-ins with participants will be conducted on a monthly basis, but informal “open office hours” will be hosted by OFRF where farmers can chat with staff or each other on any project issues. 
  • Cleaning/Analyzing Data: 
    • When needed, OFRF staff will help clean, organize, and analyze farmer collected data. 
    • OFRF staff will work closely with farmer-researchers to interpret the data collected. When appropriate, the method for analysis will be determined by OFRF staff with input from farmer-researchers.
    • Once a draft of the trial findings has been co-created, farmer-researchers will have the opportunity to include any additional comments and be encouraged to provide photos and quotes to support their findings. 
    • OFRF will host a Virtual Farmer-researcher Forum annually to share results of farmer trials. 
    • OFRF will publish results as short reports, and other simple and shareable resources that will be freely available on the OFRF website. 

Financial Support

  • OFRF will provide a $1,500 total research honorarium/stipend to farmer-researchers. This will be paid as $1,000 at the beginning of the project with the final amount ($500) to be disbursed upon completion of the project.

For help, contact OFRF’s Research & Education Program Coordinator, Mary Hathaway. Email: mary@ofrf.org 

An advisory committee, made up of OFRF Staff and organic farmers and researchers who serve on the OFRF Board of Directors, will review applications. A rubric will be provided in the project application form, providing clarity for applicants and guidance for the review committee (click here to see last year’s rubric, but note that it will be updated for 2024). Special consideration will be given to BIPOC, veteran and beginning farmers. OFRF will make every effort to ensure inclusivity in proposal review, acknowledging the commitment and time required to conduct on-farm research.

All projects will conclude with a brief findings report that helps visually share the findings and major project components. Farmer-researchers will be responsible for contributing to the writing of this report, with assistance from OFRF staff.

At the end of the project year cycle, a Virtual Farmer-Researcher Forum will be held, where each farmer-researcher will have the opportunity to share their project and their findings. OFRF can assist with making slides for farmer presentations, if needed.  This Forum will also provide an opportunity for farmer-researchers to share ideas they are interested in for the next grant cycle, and to share any successes or challenges with their peers. The Researcher Forum will be free, recorded, and online, open to any interested parties. Reports and other resources will be available free, online on the OFRF website.

No. Research must be conducted in the U.S. or its territories.

Currently, we only fund research on certified organic land and land in transition to organic certification. 

No. We only fund research on land that is certified organic or is in the formal process of transitioning to organic certification.

Each OFRF supported on-farm trial project will have up to one year to be completed.  A timeline will be created by the farmer-researcher with collaboration and support from OFRF. The timeline will include supply purchases, key action dates, data collection schedule,  implementation, progress reporting dates, and final data reporting date. 

  • November: Call for applications opens on October 14th, 2024. Around this time OFRF will host an online webinar to present on-farm research trial concepts and to share the project opportunities. Fill out the interest form on this page to be notified. Watch a recording of last year’s info session here. 
  • December: Applications are due by December 1st, 2024 11:59PM PT.
  • January: Proposals are reviewed and scored by our advisory committee.  Successful applicants are notified.
  • February: Agreements with farmer-researchers will be developed and signed. 
  • February – March:  OFRF will work with farmer-researchers to create a trial design, data collection plan, and a project timeline.
  • April – September: While timing may vary, most farmer-researchers will begin their trials. We recognize that some farmers may need to postpone the start of the trial to align with the growing season and subject of the research. For most, April will mark the start of trials and data collection by farmer-researchers. OFRF will check in with farmer-researchers on a bi-weekly or monthly basis and hold open office hours for any questions and problem-solving as needed. For farmers in the South or working on off-season trials, OFRF will work with farmers to design trials relevant to their growing cycle. Trials awarded will commence no later than one year after the grant has been awarded. 
  • October: Initial data analysis and project synthesis. Participants will plan for the Virtual Farmer-Researcher Forum to discuss project results. Next year’s application portal opens for new submissions.
  • November: Finalize project outcomes, produce reports representing trials with graphic designers. Host the Virtual Farmer-Researcher Forum.

You can use OFRF grant funding for materials, supplies, and labor to support your on-farm research trial. Some ideas include:

  • Materials needed for the research activities including, but not limited to compost, seeds, inputs, etc. 
  • Research supplies such as sample bags, markers, labels, stakes, etc.
  • Labor and other expenses for recording, analyzing, documenting, and disseminating results.
  • Purchase of equipment needed to execute the research trial, such as fencing, tractor attachments, etc.
  • Rental of large equipment necessary to the project.
  • Stipends for farmer/rancher cooperators.

  • Evidence that the applicant has read the Farmers Guide to On-Farm Research and understands how to develop a research question.
  • Convincing and detailed explanation of the importance of this potential research for your farm or ranch. 
  • Evidence of preliminary effort, observations and research in developing your research question.
  • Commitment to conducting the research and working closely with OFRF.
  • Detailed description of potential treatments and measurements to be taken.
  • Capacity for conducting research on your farm with current resources and OFRF funding.

See the 2023 rubric form that reviewers used to evaluate the proposals, an updated rubric for 2024 will be available soon.

OFRF provides a maximum grant award of $1,500 per project. 

If the projects are distinct, please submit a separate application for each of the proposed projects. However, only one research project will be funded per farm per cycle.

When your application is successfully submitted, you will receive an email confirmation. If there is a problem or questions with your application, we will email you after the submission period has ended. 

References

  • Wettasinha C, Waters-Bayer A, van Veldhuizen L, Quiroga G and Swaans K. 2014. Study on impacts of farmer-led research supported by civil society organizations. Penang, Malaysia: CGIAR Research Program on Aquatic Agricultural Systems. Working Paper: AAS-2014-40.