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Kansas Center for Agricultural Resources and the Environment (KCARE)

We're in the news!

Read all about the farm in local news pieces, including this article about the August 2021 Field Day. You can also read this article about how work on the farm drives soil health and irrigation research, or this video clip about our automated drone system from American Robotics!

Need an overview?

Download the Flickner Innovation Farm brochure, which provides general information about the history of the Flickner Farm, our research goals, current projects and partnerships.

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Kansas State University
44 Waters Hall
Manhattan KS 66506

(785) 532-0393

Flickner Innovation Farm

Ongoing projects at the Flickner Innovation Farm will help fine-tune existing irrigation, soil-health and other agricultural technologies while exploring ways that new innovations can improve soil health and conserve water on Kansas farmland. We hope to harvest the advantages of new technology and current research with our comprehensive team of experienced growers, agronomists, watershed specialists, university researchers and industry specialists.

Together, we hope to extend the reach of standard agricultural practices while improving yields and preserving natural resources.

Award-winning commitment

Ray Flickner, left, wears a grey suitjacket and holds a small plaque in front of Susan Flickner, right, who smiles at the camera.Congratulations to Ray and Susan Flickner, who were honored with a "Success Story" award at the 2022 Governor's Conference on the Future of Water in Kansas. “Success Stories” recipients are those who take extraordinary measures to conserve, reuse or adopt better practices to help ensure the future of our state’s water resources.

Farming: Maybe it IS rocket science?

The Flickner Innovation Farm has received its fair share of visitors: international research groups, industry representatives, policy makers ... you name it. We have to admit, though, that a group of scientists from NASA wasn't really on our radar.

We were glad to host them, though, and we had an important discussion about how NASA's agriculture program can aid farmers using their extensive satellite imagery program or how future missions can be planned to assist farmers who need info about climate conditions, groundwater locations, or other issues affecting crop and livestock production here on Planet Earth.

Read more from K-State about NASA's visit to the farm, check out NASA's story about what they learned during the listening tour, or enjoy the coverage from KWCH Channel 12 News.

Farm History

Interseeder plants cover crops in a field of dry plantsThe Flickner Farm, located in Moundridge, Kansas, has a long history reaching back to the 1870s. Ray Flickner is the 5th generation to farm this land, which now consists of more than 850 acres with 10 individual water rights. The Flickner Farm uses sub-surface drip irrigation (SSDI) and precision mobile drip irrigation (PMDI) to grow corn, wheat and soybeans; many of the fields are no-till or limited strip till, and soil conservation techniques continue to be implemented. The family's commitment to improved soil health and sustainable water use makes the Flickner Farm a perfect location for testing new technologies and innovative solutions for these issues.

 

Project Partners

The work of the Flickner Innovation Farm would not be possible without the support and input from our university, industry, agency and municipal partners. Meet our partners.

Thanks for a successful Winter Meeting!

We had a great turnout for this year's Winter Meeting, held on January 12, 2023 in Inman. Our presentations from K-State, NASA, and KGS sparked a lot of conversation – and the discussion continues!

If you were at the meeting but haven't had a chance to fill out the meeting survey, please do so now. It will take less than 5 minutes, and will help us improve our future events.

As they are made available, we will provide links to the presentation slides on our Research page. As always, if you want to learn more, or have specific questions, you can contact us at any time!