By Crystal Powers, DWFI/NWC Water and Cropping Systems Extension Educator
Data and tools to increase agricultural productivity while ensuring long-term water security have advanced significantly in the last half century. However, practice-adoption involves building farmers’ and agriculture advisors’ trust in these technologies. Our task in education is to find low-risk ways for farmers to engage with and learn new technologies and practices to gain confidence in how they will effectively support the farmers’ operations. Nebraska Master Irrigator provides farmers with locally relevant insights into field-ready innovations from industry, policy, and research. The University of Nebraska program engages farmers with science and builds trust in tools through game-based and peer learning.
Game-based learning
Kicking off each Nebraska Master Irrigator session, we play a farm simulation game using the latest in scientific agronomic models as the background. Farmers can play out the long-term outcomes and consequences of irrigation and nitrogen decisions made across an entire growing season in under an hour. They play as teams so they must discuss their reasons for each decision. They get to see how soil moisture and weather data can inform an irrigation decision, and each decision adds costs that are shown against breakeven on their dashboard. Leaching losses are estimated. At the end, everyone’s results are shared and benchmarked against each other. The winners are the most input-efficient and the most profitable. This model data is then benchmarked against years of real-world game trials from UNL TAPS, a similar game that takes place in an actual field over an entire growing season.
Peer learning
Farmers and agriculture professionals trust the experience and wisdom of other farmers. However, in increasingly competitive, individualistic local agriculture communities, ‘talking shop’ and discussing farm practices is increasingly rare. Talking economics has always been taboo. With these challenges in mind, Nebraska Master Irrigator uses several methods to create opportunities for learning from other farmers and agriculture professionals.
Several farmer panels bring real-world insights to the group. While many farmers don’t like to be the one at the front of the room, once the conversation gets going, they more feel comfortable speaking. Panelists are selected from those who have conducted research on their farms by working with incentive programs or industry leaders.
Incorporating Nebraska’s On-Farm Research Network adds additional peer-learning. Across the state, farmers test their own questions in partnership with Nebraska Extension using field-scale trials. Some of these farmers were invited as speakers and summaries of irrigation, nitrogen, and soil health farm trials were discussion topics throughout. Looking at results from real farms helps build confidence among farmers that these practices will consistently work and may be a good option for their own fields.
Nebraska Master Irrigator also worked to expand farmers’ peer network by inviting industry and conservation partners to learn alongside growers and showcase the latest in commercial and conservation incentives.
Measurable impact
In 2026, Nebraska Master Irrigator sessions involved a total of 158 participants—including producers, agricultural consultants, industry professionals, conservation partners, NGOs and university staff. Post‑event surveys showed significant gains in both knowledge and motivation to try new practices
Collectively, session participants manage more than 350,000 acres and influence management decisions on several million acres across Nebraska. Participants estimated the value of what they learned at an average of $12 per acre, with some reporting values as high as $30 per acre. Notably, 95% of participants reported having an intended follow-up action, ranging from management practice changes to participation in TAPS or On-Farm Research. Among returning participants from the previous year, 100% reported implementing at least one follow-up action.
On-demand and mobile-friendly content coming in 2026
The biggest suggestion we have heard from participants is to make available content on demand, so busy farmers and agriculture professionals can engage when they have time, like while riding in the combine or taking in a load of grain. This year, we are creating online courses that provide much of the same content as the in-person sessions but in bite-size, mobile-friendly formats. We will offer digital badges to certify those who complete the course. Digital badges can also provide a way to showcase their focused learning, whether fulfilling professional continuing education credits, marketing their consulting services or satisfying government training requirements.
Led by DWFI, Nebraska Extension and the Nebraska Water Center, and supported through a five‑year technical assistance agreement with USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), the program also benefits from strong industry sponsorships and partnerships. Nebraska joins a growing national network of Master Irrigator programs operating in more than ten states; many located across the Ogallala Aquifer region. Locally, collaboration among Nebraska Natural Resources Districts, NRCS, and more than a dozen industry partners helps ensure the program is responsive to Nebraska’s water and nutrient management challenges.