Location: Range Management Research
Project Number: 3050-21600-001-123-R
Project Type: Reimbursable Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Feb 1, 2026
End Date: Jan 30, 2029
Objective:
The research is designed to evaluate how regenerative ranch management affects the productivity, profitability, and natural resources at the five ranches owned and managed by the Noble Research Institute in Ardmore, Oklahoma. It will directly support Noble's research mission by creating actionable knowledge about the tradeoffs of its agricultural management approaches. The knowledge will also be transferred to the hundreds of ranchers who participate in the Institute's education and performance indicators, the project contributes to evidence-based decision-making in regenerative ranching.
Approach:
The AGENCY and COOPERATOR will collaborate to apply the ARS Agricultural Performance Indicator and Context Knowledge System (AgPICKS) at the five ranches managed by Noble Research Institute. Tasks will include:
1. Summarizing management, financial, and biophysical data for 5 Noble ranches
2. Defining management objectives and measuring success using performance indicators and Noble-defined benchmarks of desired conditions or outcomes
3. Analyzing management outcomes by comparing data to user-defined benchmarks
4. Evaluating management performance and potential tradeoffs among social, economic, and natural resources domains
5. Co-developing a peer-to-peer benchmarking tool that helps users evaluate how their agriculture systems perform in relation to their own goals, and in relation to other systems in the database. This tool will be a product of the partnership among USDA, extramural fund awardee New Mexico State University, and Noble Research Institute.
6. Comparing the frequency of meeting benchmarks at Noble ranches against the frequency at 10 “fest” farms and ranches already participating in the AgPICKS data collection and interpretation process, located in New Mexico, Utah, California, Washington and Michigan