Statistics are commonly used by researchers to determine if a particular management practice or product was effective. Practitioners often encounter this data in news coverage and marketing materials with sometimes little or no context to how these numbers were achieved or how they may relate to their production systems.
A new educational presentation from the Plant Management Network (PMN) provides an in-depth look at why statistics are important in agricultural research, how they are used to validate the performance of a product, and how growers can utilize data from well-designed research studies to improve their management practices.
The new webcast, titled “‘It’s Significant to Me!’: The Purpose of Using Statistics in Agricultural Research,” was developed for PMN’s Focus on Potato by Jeff Miller, president and CEO of Miller Research. The presentation helps growers, crop consultants, and extension agents:
- Make sense of research data being used to market new products.
- Determine if research from small crop models may translate well to their fields.
- Properly interpret statistics to aid decision making.
- Understand how statistical significance values help researchers confirm that results observed in trials are directly attributable to the practices under examination.
The 34-minute presentation will remain open-access through May 31 in the Focus on Potato webcast resource.