TAPS National Competition 2026

One field. One title. The best managers in agriculture—head-to-head.

Colby sits in the heart of the High Plains, where rainfall is limited and unpredictable, and where every decision carries weight. 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. It stabilized yields, supported livestock systems, and helped drive an agricultural economy that contributes roughly $88 billion annually in Kansas. But the conditions that built that system are changing. The Ogallala is not a rapidly renewable resource, and in many areas, groundwater levels have declined significantly after decades of use.

The challenge facing producers is no longer simply how to produce more. It is how to remain productive and profitable with less water, tighter margins, and greater uncertainty.

The TAPS National Competition was built for that reality.

A national stage for proven performance

In 2026, the TAPS Network will host its first-ever National Competition at the Northwest Research-Extension Center in Colby, Kansas. This is an invitational event, bringing together top-performing teams from state TAPS programs across the country.

These are not new participants. They are producers who have already tested their strategies, adapted under pressure, and proven their ability to compete. Now they step into a shared system—one field, one set of constraints, and one opportunity to see how their decisions perform head-to-head.

How the competition works

Each team manages a set of replicated plots within the same field. Soil conditions, weather exposure, and baseline agronomic practices are uniform across all teams. The difference is in the decisions.

Throughout the season, teams submit management choices through the TAPS platform. Those decisions include hybrid selection, seeding rate, nitrogen strategy, irrigation timing and volume, crop insurance, and grain marketing. Once submitted, those decisions are executed exactly as given.

The competition operates under a fixed irrigation allocation designed to reflect long-term groundwater sustainability at the field site. That constraint forces tradeoffs and reveals priorities. Teams are not just managing a crop—they are managing a system.

At the end of the season, results are evaluated based on:

• Economic performance
• Input-use efficiency

Yield matters, but it is only part of the equation. The goal is to identify which management strategies perform best when everything is considered together.

Why this matters

Agriculture has no shortage of data. What it often lacks is clarity on how decisions perform when everything is connected.

The TAPS National Competition creates a rare environment where full-season, whole-farm decisions can be compared under identical conditions. That makes it possible to evaluate not just individual practices, but how strategies perform as a system.

The results extend beyond the field. They inform research, strengthen Extension programming, and provide industry with insight into how tools and technologies perform in real-world management systems.

More importantly, they drive change.

Producers adopt practices when they see them work under conditions they recognize. This competition creates that proof.

Built by a national network

TAPS is a collaboration between universities, producers, Extension specialists, and industry partners working toward a shared goal: improving how agricultural decisions are made.

Programs across multiple states contribute to the network, each bringing regional challenges and producer experience. The national competition brings those efforts together into one shared platform.

What partners make possible

This competition does not run on interest alone. It requires infrastructure, coordination, and a commitment to translating data into something useful.

Partner support makes it possible to:

• Bring top-performing producers together at a national level
• Capture full-season, decision-level data
• Advance water-smart agriculture with measurable outcomes
• Translate results into tools, outreach, and adoption

This is not about funding an event. It is about investing in how agriculture learns and adapts.

Be part of the national stage

The TAPS National Competition brings together the producers, decisions, and data shaping the future of agriculture.

If your work is focused on advancing water-smart, profitable production systems, this is where that work is being tested and proven.

The field is set. The teams are ready.

Renee Jones
Associate Director, KSU-TAPS | Executive Lead, TAPS Network
reneejones@ksu.edu
620-805-9045