Category: Agriculture

Oversupply of milk and persistently low commodity prices have hurt farmers, said Mark Stephenson, director of the Center for Dairy Profitability at UW-Madison. He said tariffs are a factor in the slow markets, but not the whole story.

Quoted: “Exports as a percentage of U.S. milk production have been climbing,” said Mark Stephenson, director of dairy policy analysis at University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Every major downturn in the U.S. all milk price corresponds to times when export growth has been off trend or down.”

Dave Daniels began farming in 1977 after graduating with a bachelor’s degree in dairy science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

…he wanted to serve on Wisconsin Dairy Task Force 2.0. He serves as chairman of the generational succession/transition subcommittee.

“In plant pathology, we talk about the disease triangle,” said Damon Smith, an associate professor of plant pathology at UW-Madison, who led development of apps and models focused on diseases of turf, soybean and corn.

Above-average temperature and late-season precipitation were two major players in the outcome of the 2018 growing season, according to UW-Madison Corn Agronomist Joe Lauer. Lauer presented his highlights and summaries of last year’s growing season at eight agronomy update meetings held across the state last week.

The bad news is that they still “won’t be great,” Mark Stephenson, director of dairy policy analysis at the UW-Madison Center for Dairy Profitability, told agricultural bankers attending the 36th annual Western Wisconsin Ag Lenders Conference Jan. 10 in Menomonie.

Anti-trust laws have been on the books for decades in the United States, but their enforcement has been lax, said Peter Carstensen, law professor emeritus, University of Wisconsin Law School.

“In plant pathology, we talk about the disease triangle,” says Damon Smith, an associate professor of plant pathology at UW-Madison, who led development of apps and models focused on diseases of turf, soybean and corn.

The goal is to study the Wisconsin dairy industry and make recommendations on actions needed to maintain its viability and profitability. The task force is chaired by Dr. Mark Stephenson, director of dairy policy analysis at UW-Madison.

Leaders of the newly created Wisconsin Dairy Task Force 2.0 are opening the doors of their next meeting to the public to hear their ideas on improving the state’s dairy industry. Chairman Dr. Mark Stephenson, who is a dairy policy expert with the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says the group will meet December 13 at UW-Oshkosh at 10:00 a.m.

Soil health” is a phrase that has been thrown around a lot lately, but what exactly makes a soil healthy? The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service has their own definition, as do well-known soil scientists John Doran and Timothy Parkin. But according to Richard Lankau, assistant professor in UW-Madison’s Plant Pathology Department, each farmer, too, has their own definition of what makes a soil healthy.

“Soil health is up to us to define,” he said. “Ask yourself, what do you want your soil to do for you?”

The Oct. 31 event, a forum that brought together people from around the globe to explore organic agriculture and how the University of Wisconsin can best contribute to the advancement of organic agriculture, also served as a venue to share ideas and create more cooperative solutions world-wide.

Mitchell says recent wet weather has delayed harvest and caused widespread mold problems in the field this year. While some soybean fields have been affected, Shawn Conley, soybean and small grains specialist at UW-Madison, said disease problems have been more prevalent in the state’s corn fields.

The mid-April snowstorm that buried parts of east-central Wisconsin in more than 30 inches of snow left numerous collapsed barns and dead cattle in its wake. But those staggering Blizzard Evelyn snowfall totals — some of which were twice as high when factoring in drifts — didn’t cause the collapses, said David Bohnhoff, emeritus professor in the Biological Systems Engineering Department at UW-Madison.

UW-Madison agronomy professor and corn production expert Joe Lauer’s agronomy program includes 14 growing locations around the state. While he and his students have been able to make good progress on a lot of their trials, three locations, as of the middle of last week, had not been harvested yet as they haven’t been able to get into those fields.