The TAPS National Competition Comes to Life in 2026 

Colby, Kansas, is not an easy place to farm, and that is exactly why it matters. 

Rainfall is limited and unpredictable, and most years it arrives at the wrong time. What built this region into one of the most productive agricultural systems in the world was not the weather—it was water pulled from the Ogallala Aquifer. That water transformed western Kansas, stabilizing yields, supporting livestock systems, and driving rural economies that still depend on it today. Agriculture contributes roughly $88 billion annually to Kansas’ economy, and a significant share of that productivity traces back to irrigated systems tied to the High Plains Aquifer. 

But the reality is shifting. The Ogallala is not a rapidly renewable resource, and in many parts of western Kansas, groundwater levels have declined substantially after decades of use. The question facing producers is no longer how to maximize production with unlimited water. It is how to remain productive, profitable, and resilient with less of it each year. 

That question is what the TAPS National Competition is built to answer. 

In 2026, the TAPS Network will host its first-ever National Competition at the Northwest Research-Extension Center in Colby, bringing together top-performing teams from across the country to compete on a single field under a shared set of constraints. These are producers who have already proven themselves at the state level. Now they will manage side-by-side, on the same system, where everything is held constant except their decisions. 

Each team will manage a “farm” made up of replicated plots within the same field. Their decisions—field technology, hybrid selection, seeding rate, irrigation timing and volume, nitrogen management, crop insurance, and grain marketing—will be executed exactly as submitted. The field is uniform, the system is controlled, and the outcomes are measurable at a scale that reflects real farm performance. 

In this environment, management is exposed. 

Under a capped irrigation allocation designed to reflect long-term groundwater sustainability, it becomes the constraint that shapes every other decision. Timing matters. Tradeoffs matter. Risk tolerance matters. The difference between strong performance and missed opportunity often comes down to how well a team understands the system as a whole. 

“The goal isn’t to tell producers what to do,” said Daran Rudnick, Director of Sustainable Irrigation and KSU-TAPS. “It’s to create an environment where the best managers can test their decisions under real constraints and let the results speak for themselves.” 

That philosophy is what has defined TAPS from the beginning. It operates as both a competition and a research platform, connecting farmers, researchers, Extension specialists, and industry partners in a shared system where decisions are tested in real time. Participants are not given prescriptions. They are given data, tools, and constraints—and asked to make the call. 

Over time, that model has proven to be one of the most effective ways to drive learning and adoption. Producers experiment differently when they are accountable for outcomes. They pay attention differently when they can see how their decisions compare to others. And they change—often not overnight, but through observation, iteration, and confidence built over time. 

“At the state level, we’ve seen how powerful this model is,” said Renee Tuttle, Associate Director of KSU-TAPS. “When producers can test ideas and see how others approach the same decisions, it changes how they think. The national competition brings that dynamic to a scale we haven’t seen before.” 

That scale matters because the TAPS National Competition is not simply expanding participation—it is elevating performance. By bringing together top teams from multiple states, including long-standing programs like the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, and newer programs like the University of Maryland, the competition creates a rare opportunity to compare high-level management strategies across regions under identical conditions. 

The result is a dataset that does not exist anywhere else in agriculture. It captures full-season, whole-farm decision-making from elite producers operating under the same constraints, making it possible to evaluate not just individual practices, but how systems perform. 

That kind of insight has implications well beyond the field. It informs research priorities, strengthens Extension programming, and provides industry partners with a clearer understanding of how technologies perform when integrated into real-world management systems. It also accelerates adoption, because the results are grounded in decisions made by producers who understand the tradeoffs—not in controlled trials removed from real-world pressure. 

None of this happens without support. 

The TAPS National Competition requires coordinated investment in infrastructure, technology, data systems, and outreach. It is supported by a national network of universities and partners who recognize that the future of irrigated agriculture depends on improving decision-making—not just on what tools are available. 

That investment does more than fund a competition. It builds a platform where innovation is tested under real conditions, where results are transparent, and where the people making decisions on the ground are directly involved in shaping what comes next. 

Colby may be the host, but this is not a local story. It reflects a broader shift across agriculture, particularly in water-limited regions where the margin for error continues to shrink and the pressure to do more with less grows. 

The TAPS National Competition places that challenge in one field and asks a simple question: what actually works when the constraints are real, and the stakes are high? 

The answer will not come from theory. It will come from the decisions made there. That is why this moment matters, and why this work needs partners willing to invest in it. 

This is an opportunity to support a platform that connects producers, research, and industry in a way that moves beyond demonstration and into proof. It is an opportunity to be part of a system that is shaping how agriculture adapts to limited water, tighter margins, and greater uncertainty. 

The field is set. The teams are ready. Now it takes partners who are willing to step in and help carry it forward. If you’re ready to be part of it, connect with Renee Tuttle at taps@tapsnetwork.org to start the conversation.