Draxler is a fourth-year student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, studying agricultural and applied economics and life sciences communication. Her agricultural leadership experience includes involvement with Wisconsin FFA, Fairest of the Fair, the Association of Women in Agriculture, Collegiate Farm Bureau, Badger Dairy Club and other campus organizations.
As winter approaches, Wisconsin homeowners should prioritize yard cleanup, composting, bulb care, watering and proper pruning to protect their landscapes from cold weather.
Although mild fall temperatures may make winter seem distant, time is running short, especially in northern Wisconsin.
Bruce Spangenberg, horticulture outreach specialist with the University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension, recommends focusing on cleaning up garden spaces and preparing plants for the colder months ahead.
In an interview Wednesday from the World Dairy Expo in Madison, Poulsen said he’s been getting questions from plenty of dairy farmers and trade associations about how worried they should be about EHD.
“The question is how much time do I have to put into this? And my answer is always the same: almost none,” Poulsen said. “Go worry about more important things, whether we’re dealing with the environment, weather issues or supply chain geopolitical issues. I mean, we are never bored.”
The Peninsular Agricultural Research Station (PARS), part of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, invites the public to A Taste of PARS.
The free event involves a hay wagon tour and apple tasting. Attendees can also learn about PARS’s fruit growing and agricultural research initiatives.
Forty iron rectangles, each one blunt as a piano key, rotate into a blurring fury that hides the eight-foot-long shaft at the heart of the flail chopper. I am perched atop several tons of iron, with 80 horsepower at my command.
In mid-July, 63 high school and middle school students attended the four-day Badger Dairy Camp on the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus, where they learned about the breadth of areas that contribute to Wisconsin’s dairy industry, and the higher education and career opportunities available to them. The programming, for youth ages 12-17, included hands-on workshops and visits to multiple campus labs, the UW School of Veterinary Medicine and a nearby dairy farm – plus college prep sessions and recreational activities.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension is inviting farm families and farm business owners to participate in Cultivating Your Farm’s Future, an interactive virtual program designed to kickstart the vital process of farm succession planning.
As solar power makes up a bigger piece of our electricity puzzle, there’s a worry about a trade-off, especially in rural areas: If we build more solar farms, are we losing land for crops? But University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists are asking the question: Why can’t we have both?
The price of diesel is hitting record highs just when many U.S. farmers need it to power combines, tractors and other equipment to harvest two of the nation’s largest commodities, soybeans and corn.
The spike adds to an already tough year for these farmers, who also faced higher costs for fertilizer, seeds and equipment.
Diesel hit a record price in the U.S. on Sept. 4, soaring to an average of $5.85 a gallon for the first time as the six-month war with Iran disrupted the world’s flow of fuel. It has gone even higher since then, going for an average price of $6.05 a gallon on Friday, according to AAA.
Many Wisconsin orchards are preparing to open their fields to apple pickers across the state. But after a year of late frosts, drought and hail damage in some areas, many apple orchards are not expecting a large yield this fall.
Mark Christopher is an owner of Maple Leaf Orchard in Spring Valley. He said warmer temperatures in March and April caused the trees in his western Wisconsin orchard to start blooming earlier. When temperatures dropped again, it damaged the crop.
There are just over 30 accredited colleges of veterinary medicine in the United States and only one in Wisconsin, the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Veterinary Medicine. The program admits 100 students per year, and the college says it has trained more than half of the practicing veterinarians in the state.
Farm families and agricultural business owners can prepare for the future through Cultivating Your Farm’s Future, an interactive virtual program offered by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension.
The program is designed to help farm families begin meaningful conversations and develop a practical approach to succession planning.
This annual workshop short course takes a comprehensive approach to understanding general meat processing technologies. Participants will learn the practical science and manufacture of sausage and whole-muscle products.
D’Angelo, a UW-Madison graduate, has known since childhood he wanted to grow food for people and to do it on land he owned. He enjoyed working on his parents’ Christmas tree farm while growing up in New Jersey. But his parents, who never owned their own land, lost the farm when the landowner sold the property.
Farmers, agronomists, and agricultural professionals will gather in Arlington, Wisconsin, on September 2, 2026, for the third annual Wisconsin Extension Weed Management Workshop.
Hosted by UW-Madison Extension and the WiscWeeds team, the full-day event will focus on practical approaches to controlling weeds as herbicide resistance becomes an increasing challenge for growers.
The workshop, scheduled from 8:15 a.m. to 4 p.m., will feature field plot tours, educational presentations, networking opportunities, and a farmer panel highlighting successful weed-management experiences from across Wisconsin.
Previously, the Wisconsin 4-H Foundation supported the state’s 4-H program. Now, the University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension is leading fundraising efforts.
This change helps centralize fundraising efforts, decrease fundraising costs and ensure donations go directly to support Wisconsin 4-H youth.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s College of Agricultural & Life Sciences recently received a $5,000 grant toward the project. One year from now, the plot is expected to grow and be shared communally, allowing for elders and youth to learn more about hemp production and weaving through a Hmong cultural lens.
Working with Wisconsin-based multicultural and Hmong organizations, Shelby Ellison, a UW-Madison associate professor and hemp geneticist, applied for the grant following a meeting with an expert hemp weaver visiting Wisconsin from Thailand last year.
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have developed RuFaS, an open-source model that simulates dairy-farm operations before management changes are made. The platform is intended to help veterinarians and herd managers assess veterinary, nutritional and environmental interventions across an entire farm.
Recent Wisconsin Farm Related Fatalities reports indicate that injuries and deaths remain a persistent issue.
“This is incredibly unfortunate, given the many other challenges farm families and farm workers are facing here in this day and age,” said one of the reports’ co-authors, John Shutske, University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor and Agricultural Safety & Health Specialist. “We saw a high of 41 deaths in 2017. And, then a low of 28 in 2020, but climbing back in these last three years, we looked at around 30-35 deaths.”
Summer Hammann of Barron, Wisconsin is majoring in dairy science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her goal is to become a herdsman, working hands-on with dairy cattle, focusing on herd health, reproduction and overall performance. Her guidance towards this goal has been her background on her family’s dairy, as well as highly relevant internships and leadership in extracurricular activities.
Preliminary results from a regional study conducted in Wisconsin, Michigan and Iowa by Harkirat Kaur, an assistant professor in the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Plant and Agroecosystem Sciences, compared BMR, conventional tall and short-stature corn hybrids.
If you are a sheep or goat producer, you’ll want to save-the-date for this year’s Parasite Patrol Tour when it stops in Wisconsin. It’s your opportunity to sharpen your parasite management skills through this multi-state educational program.
The Iowa State University Extension and Outreach is working in partnership with the University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension and will be in Outagamie County on Friday, Sept. 25.
Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, in partnership with the University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension, has launched the 2026-2027 Parasite Patrol Tour, a multi-state educational program designed to help sheep and goat producers improve parasite management.
The tour began on August 4 and will stop in Outagamie County, Wisconsin, on Friday, September 25.
The workshop addresses one of the biggest challenges facing small ruminant producers parasite resistance to traditional deworming treatments.
As the only veterinary medicine school in the state, UW-Madison is working to recruit rural veterinarians as early as high school.
The program is called Food Animal Veterinary Medical Scholars. Students likely to pursue careers in food-animal veterinary medicine receive guaranteed admission and are placed on track to complete their undergraduate studies within three years.
“I know they’re getting some really beneficial rain in the eastern part of the state today,” said James Otkin, a drought expert at UW-Madison. “But for us here in Dane County, it’s been another hot, dry week. And generally speaking, it’s been pretty much dry across much of the state again.”
A trip to your local farmers market may be doing more than filling reusable bags with fresh produce. New research from the University of Wisconsin–Madison shows those visits are also helping build a stronger, more connected community.
The study, published in Information, Communication & Society, found that people who regularly attend farmers markets report higher levels of community participation. They also have a stronger sense of belonging than those who rarely or never attend.
For 25 years, Discovery Farms has bridged the gap between science and practice by putting data collection directly into the hands of farmers, creating a legacy of water stewardship that is both data-driven and practitioner-led.
A part of UW–Madison Extension, Discovery Farms is a farmer-led research program that conducts studies on farms across Wisconsin to better understand the complex relationships between agricultural practices and water quality.
At the Rhinelander Agricultural Research Station in Rhinelander, UW-Madison professors and grad students are working hard and trying to find new ways to help potatoes grow.
Hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension, the field day will provide attendees with practical information on soil conservation, nitrogen management, and strategies to improve soil health and farm profitability. Participants will have the opportunity to learn from Extension specialists and conservation professionals who are working directly with Wisconsin farmers and agricultural landscapes.
The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition says a recent federal court ruling clarifies that agencies cannot terminate funding because a new administration has different policy priorities.
Deputy Policy Director Sophia Kruszewski tells Brownfield, “The court says in its opinion that authority applies to the priorities as they were at the time the agreement was entered into.”
“It doesn’t create this broad authority for the agency to change its mind and then hold existing agreements to new and changing priorities,” she explains.
Aerica Bjurstrom, a regional dairy educator with the University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension, said interest in the product is good news for the state’s dairy farmers.
“I think a lot of this innovation is coming from people in their own kitchens,” she said. “I think a lot of this boom in cottage cheese is coming from social media.”
Weather forecasters expect this to be one of the warmest growing seasons on record for much of the Midwest.
The early July heat wave prompted crop growth while heavy rains fell across parts of Wisconsin. USDA data showed corn condition at 82% good to excellent, while soybean condition remained unchanged at 78% good to excellent, with 20% of the crop blooming.
At UW-Madison, it was Steven Babcock, who in 1890 developed his groundbreaking butterfat test, according to the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. The Babcock Tester paved the way for higher standards in milk quality and reduced the practice of watering down milk.
The first dairy school in the U.S. was established at UW-Madison in 1890.
At first, only two students attended the first class, before the program’s enrollment jumped to 75. The enrollment jump was around a year after Prof. Stephen Babcock developed an inexpensive and practical test that measured the butterfat content of milk. The “Babcock test” provided an incentive to produce high-quality milk and allowed farmers to be paid accordingly.
UW-Madison Extension will host a beef cow-calf workshop Tuesday, July 28, at 6 p.m. at Starck Century Farm near Cadott.
This program is designed for cow-calf producers seeking to improve pasture and herd management practices while increasing profitability. Topics will include managing pastures for long-term production, breeding decisions for cow longevity, and marketing the fall calf crop. The Starck family will also discuss their transition to rotational grazing and efforts to improve herd genetics.
As solar power makes up a bigger piece of our electricity puzzle, there’s a worry about a trade-off, especially in rural areas: If we build more solar farms, are we losing land for crops?
But University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists are asking the question: Why can’t we have both?
As the horticulture outreach specialist with UW-Madison Extension Dane County, Johnson, 62, should have all the gardening answers you seek, and if not, she can surely find the right expert who does.
The United States is one of only a handful of countries that allows companies to hold patents on plant varieties. As a result, a small number of corporations can – and do – suppress competition in the seed industry, stifle innovation and turn taxpayer subsidies intended for farmers into corporate profits.
Julie Dawson is a Professor and Extension Specialist in the Department of Plant and Agroecosystem Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She told “Wisconsin Today” parts of Bayer’s rebate program would discourage smaller seed sellers — who buy seeds from seed giants like Bayer and re-sell those directly to farmers — from testing products from multiple companies and specializing what seeds they sell to their region or customer base.
The history of the Laufenberg family farm has roots in the year Wisconsin became a state.
It was a time when the size of most dairy herds could be counted on your hands, and horses and oxen were used to pull plows, rakes and wagons.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison will host a free pop-up field day on Thursday, July 9, 2026, at the Arlington Agricultural Research Station’s Plant Pathology Office in Arlington, Wisconsin.
The hands-on educational event will focus on corn and soybean diseases as well as herbicide injury, providing valuable information for farmers, crop advisers, and agricultural professionals.
While rising prices can put a strain on both farmers and consumers, interest in organic products continues to remain high. In 2025, U.S. organic food sales grew three times as fast as the overall food market. This interest extends to organic beef, eggs and dairy, a trend that bolsters demand for organic feed grain.
Q: I eat frozen yogurt regularly, assuming it’s better for me than ice cream. Is it?
Since frozen yogurt took off in the 1970s, it has been pitched as a healthier alternative to ice cream. In TCBY advertisements from the 1990s, their low-calorie, nonfat version was said to have “all of the pleasure, none of the guilt.” Today, some Greek yogurt shops tout gut-friendly probiotic benefits.
A new federal rule aimed at increasing access to nutritious foods for SNAP recipients is raising questions for some small grocery stores in rural communities.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced in May that retailers participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) will be required to carry a wider variety of staple foods beginning in November.
Last month, when the Trump administration reached an agreement with Bayer to curb what officials lambasted as anticompetitive practices, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins hailed it as a win for farmers. But she cautioned the concentrated nature of the seed industry required continued antitrust vigilance.
A researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has published a paper that demonstrates hybrid combinations of lignocellulosic feedstock pretreatment methods can achieve high glucose yields with reduced energy consumption.
Dairy producers across Wisconsin now have a new tool to help manage one of summer’s biggest challenges: heat stress. It costs the U.S. dairy industry significantly each year through reduced milk production, lower fertility, and added health expenses. At the same time, the cost of running the fans and ventilation systems that prevent those losses keeps rising, making smart decisions on the farm matter more than ever.
In many regions of the country, dairy farmers experience all four seasons, and that includes hot, humid summers that can leave dairy cattle — and the farm’s profits — struggling to cope.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison Extension has a one-stop website with science-based resources for dealing with heat stress.
Resistant and emerging pests are on the rise, leaving farmers scrambling for information on control options.
Corn earworm flexed its might last year in Wisconsin fields.
Professional Dairy Producers will feature two educational sessions this week through its weekly The Dairy Signal program, offering dairy producers updated information on herd management and market conditions affecting the industry in 2026.
The Tuesday, May 26 episode will focus on improving reproductive performance on dairy farms. The session will examine current reproductive protocols, management strategies, and recent research findings designed to help producers strengthen herd efficiency and productivity.
As part of its 80th anniversary celebration, Woods Equipment is making financial contributions to agriculture programs at universities and local organizations across the Midwest. Among the universities is UW-Madison.
“For 80 years, our equipment has worked alongside farmers and the next generation of land stewards,” said Jillian Love, Marketing Manager at Woods Equipment. “These partnerships are our way of giving back and making sure there is a next generation ready to carry that work forward.”
The Dairy Innovation Hub held its fifth annual Dairy Symposium on Tuesday, May 12, at the Memorial Union on the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus. During the day-long event, which drew over 200 attendees, scientists shared and discussed their Hub-funded work with researchers, students, campus colleagues, and others.
Testing for avian flu among Wisconsin dairy cows is being reduced, thanks to recent changes at both state and federal levels.
But one animal health expert worries that reduced support from the U.S. Department of Agriculture could leave continued surveillance of the highly-contagious virus on shaky ground.
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On June 1, Maria Woldt will become the third director of the Dairy Innovation Hub, a state-funded initiative that brings together scientists, farmers, businesses, and educators to explore new ideas to ensure Wisconsin’s $52.8 billion dairy sector remains globally competitive while advancing economic, environmental, and social sustainability.
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“Researchers worked with the audiology lab on the UW Madison campus to help extend that squeak so that people all over the nation can enjoy them, which helps maintain that economic viability of Wisconsin dairy,” Hagenow said.
As Wisconsin farmers prepare for the 2026 growing season, the University of Wisconsin–Madison Division of Extension is launching another year of Badger Crop Connect webinars, a twice-monthly series providing timely, data-driven insights for the state’s corn, soybean, small grain, and forage farmers and industries.
When considering the expansion, Westby sought advice from the Center for Dairy Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Greenwalt commented that in Europe, cottage cheese is made in closed vat systems, but it isn’t commonly done that way in the United States. The CDR helped the co-op to find the right systems for its expansion.
It can be difficult to remove rodents once they’re inside your home. To keep them out, the University of Wisconsin’s rodent and pest bird management guide recommends sealing any exterior entry points larger than a quarter-inch.
Wisconsin currently has 370 active or pending concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFO) permits, most of which are dairy farms with about 700 or more cattle. Wisconsin dairy farms produce roughly 12 billion pounds of manure annually, according to the University of Wisconsin-Madison Extension office.
