The Illinois Corn Growers Association and University of Illinois have established a 160-acre field laboratory in Macon County to assess conservation practices from agronomic, economic, and environmental perspectives. The field lab provides unique, state-of-the art research platforms for multidisciplinary teams of university researchers to perform field-scale agronomic research while collecting high-resolution soil and water data, including water loss from tile drainage systems. The field laboratory currently serves three teams of University of Illinois researchers studying the impacts of nutrient management, soil health, and sensor technologies on water quality, crop production, and net farm financial returns.
