TAPS allows us to uniquely explore sustainable agriculture across different climate and management scenarios.
Originally established in Nebraska and later expanded to the Oklahoma panhandle region and other states, the TAPS program allows farmers to interactively compete using a variety of efficient strategies and technologies with a goal to reduce water & energy consumption while optimizing profits and yield. After years of success, the program is eager to incorporate other environmental indicators to the competition. Our team has begun with modeling greenhouse gas emissions associated with energy consumption, materials, transportation, field management, and direct soil emissions from microbial processes. We plan to use field measurements to calibrate and evaluate the model. Then, we aim to incorporate life cycle greenhouse gas emissions to the competition as another metric to optimize.

Colorado TAPS program

Lizzie presenting at the OK Governor's Water Conference 2024

Lizzie and Shelby at the Undergraduate Research Symposium 2024

Lizzie at UCOWR 2023

Lizzie at the Graduate Research Symposium 2023

Colorado TAPS program