With the downturn expected to stretch into a fifth year, many farmers already have eaten through their financial cushion, said Mark Stephenson, director of dairy policy analysis at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
To use data that applies specifically to their dairy, producers can use an online “Heifer Replacement” tool developed by Victor Cabrera, a dairy science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Farmers who are hesitant about transitioning to no-till practices might consider doing a test and hiring someone to do the no-till planting. The Uplands Watershed Group has a no-till drill available to rent at an economical cost, said Daniel Smith, southwest regional specialist for the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Nutrient and Pest-Management Program.
Wisconsin pork farmers are invited to join University of Wisconsin-Extension, the Wisconsin Pork Association, and the UW-Agriculture Colleges (Madison, Platteville, and River Falls) for the Badger Swine Symposium on Friday, November 9, 2018. The Badger Swine Symposium is being hosted at the Arlington Agricultural Research Station.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the City of Madison have a long history of collaboration, including strong ties with the UW-Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. The collaboration may continue in the future in a new way as the City of Madison and UW-Madison are being considered as the new homes of the USDA’s Economic Research Service and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
The new arrangement with Canada likely won’t pull U.S. dairy farmers out of the ditch, said Mark Stephenson, director of dairy policy and analysis at the University of Wisconsin.
“On paper, there’s a lot of grain out there, in these fields that are harvesting that haven’t been flooded out,” said Paul Mitchell, director of the Renk Agribusiness Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “The big question is how good is (the grain) and is it all usable.”
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.
Masatsugu Toyota led the work as a postdoctoral researcher in a UW-Madison laboratory. Those two collaborated with researchers from Michigan State University, the University of Missouri and the Japan Science and Technology Agency.
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.
Our laboratory at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is also interested in the effects that fungicides might have on mycotoxin accumulation in silage corn hybrids. We are especially interested in the accumulation of deoxynivalenol (DON or vomitoxin).
The cooperative received a USDA Local Food Promotion Program grant in September to further work on building a regional food distribution system. Project partners include the UW-Madison Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems, Willy Street Co-op, Epic Systems and Second Harvest Food Bank, among others.
“Students wanted to know where they could find positive internships and training opportunities for hands-on learning,” said Julie Dawson, University of Wisconsin-Extension horticulture educator and UW-Madison assistant professor of horticulture. “This really brought out the need for a more comprehensive training program.”
Quoted: Bill Tracy, an organic corn breeder and professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, says, “Many CRISPR-induced changes that could happen in nature could have benefits to all kinds of farmers.” But, the NOSB has already voted on the issue and the rules are unlikely to change without significant pressure. “It’s a question of what social activity could move the needle on that,” Tracy concludes.
Wissconsin Brewing Co., Heineken and University of Wisconsin–Madison students are partnering to brew the first wild lager brewed in North America.
AgDay National Reporter Betsy Jibben talks with Harry Van Der Linden, President of Holstein Canada; Chris Galen, Communications Senior Vice President with the National Milk Producers Federation and Mark Stephenson, an Economist and Dairy Policy Expert with UW-Madison.
Maenner plans numerous educational events at which UW-Extension specialists make presentations. She strengthens connections between grower groups and UW-Extension, brainstorms educational-program ideas with growers, and manages research grants through associations, Guedot said.
Jerry Clark, Chippewa County UW-Extension agricultural agent, agreed with Hagedorn that this is good news for local farmers. There is more milk produced in the U.S. than what can be used domestically. Both Mexico and Canada are major buyers of Wisconsin milk and dairy products, he said.
Quoted: “You need a boat to get into some fields,” quipped Kevin Jarek, a University of Wisconsin Extension agent in Outagamie County.
Task Force Chairman Mark Stephenson of the University of Wisconsin says the meetings will provide an opportunity to discuss in-depth the issues that were identified at the group’s first fall meeting earlier this summer.
The project with the UW-Madison interns, overseen by professor Fred Madison, continued from 2010 to 2015. It examined the links between karst topography, groundwater, and dairy farm practices. As a result of those ventures, Geiser reports that mistakes were uncovered in the existing soil survey data.
I just had the best ice cream ever at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. UW Madison makes their own Babcock brand ice cream on campus. Why is the UW ice cream so much better than University of Nebraska?
Lloyd and Daphne Holterman will be recognized for their contributions to the dairy industry, their community and the University of Wisconsin-Madison at UW-Madison’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences Honorary Recognition Banquet, along with three other recipients.
Basse, who grew up on a dairy farm in Waukesha and got his degree in agricultural economics at UW-Madison, said marketers within the dairy industry must better promote the benefits of their products at the grocery stores to regain consumers’ interest.
Dr. Van Os’ research focuses on understanding, evaluating, and improving the welfare of dairy animals from a biological perspective. She shared her findings recently with dairy producers at the Dodge-Fond du Lac County Forage Council meeting at Lomira.
Corn is looking pretty rugged in many areas of the Wisconsin corn belt. Areas in southern, southwestern, and south-central Wisconsin have experienced major foliar disease epidemics including the new disease, tar spot.
With partners in Wisconsin, Iowa and Pennsylvania, researchers will have the opportunity to conduct trials at various sites to test planter technologies, cover crop types, planting dates, weed management strategies and more in the first three years of the grant-funded project.
One crucial decision concerns timing a treatment that will eliminate more than three-quarters of the tiny fruits, says Amaya Atucha, a UW–Madison assistant professor of horticulture and Extension fruit crop specialist, who has been leading the effort to introduce the new technology.
Since she joined the University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty last spring as an assistant professor of dairy science and extension animal welfare specialist, she has traveled the state to meet with milk producers, processors and others concerned about the well-being of Wisconsin’s signature farm animal.
There is potential in 2018 for abundant volunteer wheat in late-summer-seeded alfalfa stands, says Mark Renz, University of Wisconsin-Extension weed specialist.
“We hope to define a set of best management practices for maximizing organic grain production yield while minimizing environmental impact and improving soil health,” says Brian Luck, assistant professor of biological systems engineering at UW–Madison and project lead.
Rebecca Blank, UW-Madison chancellor, said the Center for Dairy Research is one of the country’s premier dairy-research and education facilities. The hub for discovery is the result of about 200 individuals and organizations that helped raise funds, she said. John Lucey, director of the Center for Dairy Research and a professor of food science at UW-Madison, thanked the Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin that has funded the Center for Dairy Research for more than 30 years.
Meanwhile, strong yields of corn and soybeans across the Midwest will lead to increased demand for diesel compared to previous years, said Paul Mitchell, a professor of agricultural and applied economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Farmers will need more of the product to haul crops to market.
Over the years, UW–Madison personnel have supported the organic ag sector through research, teaching and outreach, helping to develop knowledge and spread information to support organic systems, participating in the UW–Madison tradition known as the Wisconsin Idea.
Management decisions made now can impact how alfalfa stands do during winter. In spring 2018 there were a lot of reports of alfalfa surviving winter, but much alfalfa was weak and yields were less. Winter weather was to blame.
UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank said this project, however, is a unique one in that it has been six years in the making and includes one of the largest private/public partnerships in the university’s history. In eight months, almost 200 partners came together to donate $16 million toward the project.
Quoted: “It has been a long-term dream to transfer the ability to associate with nitrogen-fixing bacteria from legumes to cereals,” said Jean-Michel Ane, a professor of bacteriology and agronomy at UW-Madison and a co-author of the new study.
Wisconsin is practically synonymous with dairy for many people, and the title of “America’s Dairyland” is even enshrined on the state’s license plates. While Wisconsinites may take the prominence of cows for granted, though, it turns out Wisconsin wasn’t always the Dairy State — at one point in history, it might have even been called the Wheat State.
With renovation, Babcock Hall to increase business collaborative options, research opportunities.
A better understanding of the data and images gathered by the drone-borne instruments could lead to new ways for cranberry growers to detect insects and disease weeks sooner than traditional scouting forays on the ground.
Quoted: “The facility is going to be one of the premiere dairy education and research centers in the nation,” Blank said. “And most importantly, it’s going to be a hub for discovery and innovation for Wisconsin’s dairy industry, working closely with our faculty and our students.”
Quoted: “I think we have a very important mission for the state and for the university,” Poulsen says. “We are investing in our staff because they are the scientific minds and the people who get the testing in and done, and the customer service done.”
The launch of construction and renovation for UW-Madison’s Babcock Hall Dairy Plant and Center for Dairy Research was marked with a celebration in the Lake Mendota Room of Dejope Hall on Sept. 7.
For three years, Sanford has been honing an energy-miser, continuous flow method to remove mint oil from tons of mint plants. Today, the standard extraction procedure involves injecting steam through a tub-load of chopped mint, in a two-hour process.
The event focused largely on “news you can use” for Wisconsin farmers. Andrew Stammer, for example, director of the UW Soil and Forage Analysis Laboratory located at the Marshfield Agricultural Research Station, described soil-sampling protocols for farmers who apply fertilizer in strips along the crop row.
As for the apple, the custom was started among Ashkenazi Jews in medieval Europe, when the apple as we know it had become more accessible due to cultivation, said Jordan Rosenblum, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who studies food and Judaism.
Quoted: Farmers will face a learning curve in figuring out how to take advantage of the insurance with the changing markets, said Brian Gould, professor of agribusiness at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Noted: Nationwide, the number of CSA farms fell from more than 12,000 in 2012 to about 7,000 in 2015, said Lydia Zepeda, a consumer science professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Noted: Farmers will face a learning curve in figuring out how to take advantage of the insurance with the changing markets, said Brian Gould, professor of agribusiness at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
A research trial was initiated in fall 2017 at the UW-Arlington Agricultural Research Station. The research team assessed the impact of delayed grain harvest on the yield and test weight of soft red winter wheat.
The school announced it will present its Honorary Recognition Awards to Daphne & Lloyd Holterman, Anna Maenner and David Rhoda, and its Distinguished Alumni Award to Timothy Young. Each will be recognized during a special ceremony on October 25.
Dado is currently attending UW-Madison, where she’s majoring in dairy science and life communications. Her career goal is to work for the U.S. Department of Agriculture or other government agencies on trade policy.
At a towering 16’ tall, corn native to Oaxaca, Mexico grows up to 10 aerial roots [compared to two in a typical plant] that secrete gel to help nitrogen-fixing bacteria survive. If scientists find a way to make this commercially available, it could be a game-changer for corn grown for grain and silage.
Quoted: “We see over $1 billion in economic activity in these counties when we add up the infrastructure that’s out there and all the commerce that occurs between the production, the processing and the selling of the product,” said Jerry Clark, Chippewa County Agriculture Agent with UW-Extension.
Klondike Cheese Co. is expanding production as it enters its second century of cheesemaking, under the leadership of six Master Cheesemakers certified by UW–Madison’s Center for Dairy Research.
Mark Stephenson, director of UW-Madison’s Center for Dairy Profitability, told Wisconsin Public Radio that farmers had avoided making large purchases during the past few years of low commodity prices.
The Henry family has also produced J. Henry & Sons Wisconsin Straight Bourbon since 2009. Since it came to market in 2015, it has been an award-winning, nationally and internationally acclaimed bourbon. They use grains developed at UW-Madison, follow sustainable practices, and their entire family is in the business working to create a legacy of Wisconsin production and to keep it growing.
More than 20 plant breeders from UW-Madison, other universities, seed companies, non-profits and independent farms have contributed numerous varieties of 12 different crops to the project. Trials are conducted at UW-West Madison Agricultural Research Station and UW-Spooner Agricultural Research Station to compare crops for flavor, productivity, disease resistance and earliness.
The University of Wisconsin placed first at the 2018 North American Intercollegiate Dairy Challenge in April, beating out teams from 38 American and Canadian universities.
