Daran Rudnick
Assistant Professor of Biological Systems Engineering: Irrigation Management Specialist
The West Central Research and Extension Center (WCREC) serves approximately 1,800 acres of land in the southwest region of Nebraska. Dr. Daran Rudnick, the Irrigation Management Specialist at the WCREC facility, is responsible for developing and conducting relevant and responsive irrigation/water management research and extension programs for the region. To bring together his research and extension aims, he needed a program that encouraged peer-to-peer engagement between producers, industry, and university personnel. To drive this level of collaboration, Daran and the WCREC team came up with a creative response: get farmers and other participants to interact through competition.
Daran, alongside Agricultural Economist Matt Stockton, former Cropping Systems Specialist Rodrigo Werle, and Extension Educator Chuck Burr, created the Testing Ag Performance Solutions (TAPS) program which hosts farm management competitions that focus on input use efficiency and farm profitability. Growers and stakeholders learn more about the production and economic impacts of their management decisions in areas including irrigation, nitrogen fertilizer, seed selection, planting density, insurance, and marketing.
TAPS utilizes technology to assist growers' implementation of management decisions. Participants, who range from across Nebraska and Kansas, do not visit their plots. Instead, growers submit their choices and make changes to their plots in real time through the TAPS online submission system. Production decisions are imposed under Daran’s variable rate sprinkler irrigation system at WCREC. Results are scaled to reflect 3,000 acre corn or sorghum farms. Daran's research team collect data on crop response including crop evapotranspiration, crop nutrient uptake, and soil-water dynamics, among others.
The TAPS program has grown from 18 participants in 2017 to about 90 participants in 2018, which shows that this program is having exciting impacts for the growers served by the WCREC team. The competition also includes regulatory teams such as the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality and the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources.
The TAPS team has delivered over 24 invited local, statewide, and international presentations reaching over 1700 growers, stakeholders, and other persons this year, and will conclude the 2018 Farm Management Competitions with an awards banquet in December where results will be shared and cash awards will be given to the highest input use efficient and most profitable farms.
Daran's research interests also extend to water-nitrogen interaction. Daran is collaborating with BSE professor Suat Irmak, Extension Educator Brian Krienke, and Agronomy professor Richard Ferguson, among others, to measure the effects of fertigation on crops. Fertigation is irrigation in which fertilizers have been added to the water system. Daran's team specifically measures plant stress affected by both water and nitrogen using various types of sensors.
Daran is a member of an eight-institution USDA-NIFA funded Coordinated Agricultural Project which studies the Ogallala Aquifer to improve water resource quality and quantity. The aquifer spans south to north from Texas to South Dakota, and is a major source of water for agricultural activities in the high plains region. The study looks at both water management as well as economic impacts for the aquifer and the states which rely on it.
One final area of research in which Daran is participating is a USDA-NIFA cross-discipline study between UNL, Penn State, Arizona State, and USDA-ARS examining how stakeholder engagement can aid in identifying solutions in agriculture. Professors in social sciences and STEM fields work together along with stakeholders to better identify challenges and potential solutions to address water quality and quantity for and from agriculture.
The big impacts of Daran's research have spread to his service work as well. Daran serves as the University of Nebraska representative on the Twin Platte Natural Resources District Integrated Management Plan stakeholder group as well as serves on the IANR Agricultural Research Division council board to represent the western region of the state.
As a degree holder from Biological Systems Engineering from his bachelor's to his Ph.D., Daran has witnessed many changes to the department in the past decade. Through the TAPS, USDA-NIFA, and other research programs, Daran can now point to his own major contributions to the department and WCREC, the state of Nebraska, and stakeholders worldwide through his education and Extension impacts.