Kevin Jarek, agricultural agent for University of Wisconsin-Extension in Outagamie County, said some farmers were forced to harvest crops in wet conditions, leaving major ruts in their fields or compacted soils which will complicate planting this year.
Category: Agriculture
Babcock Hall construction project to focus on dairy innovation
The renovation to the dairy plant and the addition to the Center for Dairy Research will be a $72.6 million dollar project.
Cranberries, Wisconsin’s Most Profitable Fruit, Face An Uncertain Future
“When you change the conditions and those winters become more extreme, the plant is disoriented,” said Amaya Atucha, fruit crop specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Potato Farmers Grapple With Climate Change’s Impact On Nitrogen Management
Nitrogen management is a huge struggle for potato farmers, said Chris Kucharik, chair of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Agronomy Department.
Dairy State: Cheese Producers Wrestle With Climate Change Amid Already Struggling Industry
While it depends on the style of cheese, Mark Johnson, assistant director of the Center for Dairy Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison says it averages to about 10 pounds of milk for 1 pound of cheese.
Wisconsin Experts Disagree On Dairy Industry Impact Of Dean Foods Sale
Quoted: But Peter Carstensen, professor emeritus from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School, said the deal could end up hurting dairy farmers by giving DFA too much power over the market.
In fight to survive, US dairy farmers look for any tech edge
After hitting a historic high in 2014 of more than $26 per 100 pounds on the strength of massive buying from China, the bottom fell out. When China stopped its milk-buying spree, there was already oversupply from both American and European Union producers, said Mark Stephenson, director of dairy policy analysis at the University of Wisconsin.
Fast-moving GOP farm aid legislation would cost $36 million per year
The GOP proposal also would direct UW-Madison to compile a report on ways to best serve the state’s farmers and conduct research on technology specific to agriculture.
Republican farm aid bills include tax credit, insurance deductions, but full cost still unknown
The GOP proposal also would direct UW-Madison to compile a report on ways to best serve the state’s farmers and conduct research on technology specific to agriculture.
In fight to survive, US dairy farmers look for any tech edge
When China stopped its milk-buying spree, there was already oversupply from both American and European Union producers, said Mark Stephenson, director of dairy policy analysis at the University of Wisconsin.
Regents panel OKs $32.6 million more for building projects
A University of Wisconsin System regent committee approved spending $32.6 million Thursday to cover cost overruns for two UW-Madison construction projects.
Vos, Assembly Republicans To Introduce New Agriculture Tax Credits, Export Incentives
The positions, which would cost the state $2.5 million over the next two years, would be based in the Division of Extension at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
In Fight to Survive, US Dairy Farmers Look for Any Tech Edge
After hitting a historic high in 2014 of more than $26 per 100 pounds on the strength of massive buying from China, the bottom fell out. When China stopped its milk-buying spree, there was already oversupply from both American and European Union producers, said Mark Stephenson, director of dairy policy analysis at the University of Wisconsin.
Federal Farm Aid Boosts Personal Income Growth In Wisconsin, Other Farm States
Paul Mitchell, director of the Renk Agribusiness Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said farmers also saw their income increase in 2019 thanks to crop insurance payments. He said many farmers received indemnity checks in late summer after unfavorable spring weather prevented planting.
How a Wisconsin Farmer Became the Big Cheese
Pam Hodgson never thought she would make cheese. Now she is one of two women in the U.S. with the prestigious title of “master cheesemaker.”
Education: Bachelor’s degree in dairy science from the University of Wisconsin
Dairy Margin Coverage
Quoted: But the only major difference between MPP and DMC, says Mark Stephenson, is the cost and coverage levels, not the basic concept. Stephenson is the director of dairy policy analysis at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences.
Lawmakers release $10M plan to address water contamination in Wisconsin
Noted: It touted efforts it plans to focus on over the coming years, such as developing a program in conjunction with the University of Wisconsin to assist farmers to reduce leaching nitrates from fertilizer into groundwater. The report also noted the administration had started a program to monitor water chemistry and fish tissue near sites contaminated with PFAS.
Wisconsin Loses 10 Percent Of State’s Dairy Herds As Fallout From Low Milk Prices Continues
Mark Stephenson, director of dairy policy analysis for the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said Wisconsin usually sees a 4 percent decline in herd numbers each year. But the prolonged period of low milk prices from 2014 to 2019 have forced many farms to sell their herds.
‘You have this burden that you carry’: For dairy farmers struggling to hold on, depression can take hold
Noted: This winter, Wisconsin farm couples can attend workshops in Mineral Point, Wausau, Appleton, Waupun, Eau Claire and Rice Lake, aimed at helping them manage stress associated with financial problems.
The workshops, sponsored by the state agriculture department and University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension, will include a segment on how to talk with children about problems on the farm, and decision-making when the farm may have to shut down.
Wisconsin Corn, Soybean Crops Harvested At One Of the Slowest Paces On Record In 2019
Joe Lauer, agronomy professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said this year was just behind the slowest harvest pace in 1992.
Federal Government Approves 10 New Pesticides For Hemp Farming
Shelby Ellison, a hemp researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said the new approvals will add another helpful tool to farmers’ toolboxes.
Slow harvest leads to drying challenges, fire prevention focus
A two-year study conducted at the University of Wisconsin found that leaving corn standing in the field tends to increase the amount lost when the feed grain is harvested and dried. Yield loss can climb from a 3-5% loss in November to 22% in December.
Soil Health and Conservation Tillage Put to Work
“In a perfect world that university staff dream about, you would treat every field separately according to its soil test,” says Dick Wolkwoski, Extension soil scientist at University of Wisconsin-Madison.
UW alumni co-found FoodChain, looks to help local farmers
FoodChain provides online marketplace, handles delivery.
Industrial dairy farming is taking over Wisconsin’s milk production, crowding out family operations and raising environmental concerns
Quoted: Dean “had bigger, industrywide issues with the consumption of milk products. But the loss of the Walmart business was just another thing they didn’t need,” said Mark Stephenson, director of dairy policy analysis at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Wisconsin Farmers Receiving Smaller Portion Of Dollars Spent On Thanksgiving
Paul Mitchell, director of the Renk Agribusiness Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said farmers have received a small portion of food dollars for years. He said the trend is driven by consumers’ desire to buy the cheapest food products available.
A Tight Job Market Insulates a Slowing Economy—and Perhaps Trump, Too
“Farmers had prepared themselves for three-year cycles, but not five,” said Mark Stephenson, director of Dairy Policy Analysis at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Climate Change Is Making the Future of Cranberry Growing Uncertain
One morning in mid-September, Jed Colquhoun, an expert in fruit and vegetable production systems, hopped on the phone to discuss the state of cranberries and climate change in the state of Wisconsin, our country’s most bountiful producer of that tart indigenous berry.
America’s milk industry is struggling
“I’ve never seen anything like that,” Brian Gould, emeritus professor of agriculture and applied economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison told CNN Business. He said Suiza’s growth “wasn’t organic,” adding, “it was really just from the outside in.”
Wisconsin’s dairy industry would collapse without the work of Latino immigrants — many of them undocumented
Noted: Hiring immigrants caught on among Wisconsin dairy farms in the late 1990s and early 2000s, according to University of Wisconsin research.
Poor harvest conditions affect silage quality and quantity
Dr. Randy Shaver, University of Wisconsin-Madison Extension Dairy Specialist, advises producers to get their feed tested and to work closely with a nutritionist to decide how to supplement.
Wisconsin leads the nation in dairy farm closures. Meet the banker who tries to help her fellow farmers avoid that fate.
Noted: Johnson originally set her sights a little further than the farm. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in agricultural journalism and took a sales job with two radio stations in Janesville.
Trouble in paradise: ‘The Pollinators’ shows the devastating impact of modern agriculture
Noted: Heather Swan is a UW-Madison faculty member and author of “Where Honeybees Thrive: Stories from the Field.”
Dean Foods, one of nation’s largest dairy processors, files for bankruptcy
Quoted: “I think that certainly was a blow for them, but it was only one of many they’ve had,” said Mark Stephenson, director of dairy policy analysis at University of Wisconsin-Madison.
America’s Largest Milk Company Just Filed for Bankruptcy
Quoted: While there might be shake-ups in the back-end of getting cow’s milk to the average American’s fridge, Mark Stephenson, director of dairy policy analysis at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told VICE that it’s unlikely to have a huge impact on the broader industry or on consumers.
Governor Declares Energy Emergency As Farms, Rural Residents Create High Demand For Propane
Joe Lauer, agronomist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said he started advising farmers to start buying propane over the summer after wet weather caused major planting delays across the state.
Governor Declares Energy Emergency As Farms, Rural Residents Create High Demand For Propane
Quoted: Joe Lauer, agronomist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said he started advising farmers to start buying propane over the summer after wet weather caused major planting delays across the state.
“Whenever that occurs, we typically have some fairly wet corn,” Lauer said. “We just haven’t gotten a break this year in terms of the weather. It’s been really cold and wet through most of the season.”
Meet Ontario’s asparagus man
Wolyn grew up in New Jersey and studied plant science at Rutgers University and then earned his masters and PhD in plant breeding and plant genetics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 1988, he came to the University of Guelph, taking over the already decade-old Asparagus Breeding Program from the previous professor who died.
Wisconsin Dairy Economists Say 2020 Will Be ‘Restorative’ Year For The Industry
Quoted: The production increase comes after several months of declines from 2018 levels. Mark Stephenson, director of dairy policy analysis at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said he was surprised by the change.
“(There were) fewer cows than we’ve had in all of our earlier months of the year, so a continued decline there, but milk production per cow had a strong growth,” Stephenson said. “That usually doesn’t happen unless we have pretty good quality feed and a real strong incentive to produce milk.”
Harvest Struggles Across Wisconsin Could Impact Supply Of Livestock Feed
Quoted: Liz Binversie, agricultural educator for University of Wisconsin-Extension in Brown County, said she has heard farmers describe silage as like pickling vegetables.
“You’re kind of pickling the feed, right? You’re preserving it long term. And what’s doing that is the microbial population,” Binversie said.
New Survey Finds Wisconsin Fish Farmers Seeing Steady Demand
“Most of the fish farmers that we spoke with were already selling out of all their fish. So if they had more capacity, they could sell more fish,” said Bret Shaw, associate professor of life science communication from UW-Madison and an author of the study. “Some were even ordering in fish from other states and smoking it or processing it.”
Potential changes to nut milk, plant-based meat labels
Quoted: Steph Tai, a law professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said that farmer protection, not consumer confusion, is at the heart of the proposed legislation.
“If a consumer knows that we can use nut-based products in the same way that we’ve been using dairy-based products, then the concern from the dairy industry is that people will be substituting,” Tai said. “The same thing with plant based burgers. If people know that they could use it as an easy substitute and it tastes kind of the same, then they might just replace that, which will lead to undercutting the profits of livestock producers.”
Agronomist earns UW-Madison honorary recognition
A tomato plant played a huge part in launching the career of Tim Boerner, who will receive Oct. 17 the University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences Honorary Recognition Award. Boerner was 9 years old when his grandfather gave him a tomato plant. That gift cultivated his lifelong interest in crops and agriculture in general. That interest also has helped innumerable Wisconsin farmers.
With help from cheese, milk prices finally improving
Quoted: Mark Stephenson is the director of dairy policy analysis with the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “We’re about $1.30, $1.40 higher per hundredweight on milk than we were this time last year,” Stephenson says. “So we’ve had a definite improvement.”
3 UW schools launch innovation hub to help Wisconsin’s dairy industry
With money now released by the Legislature, three University of Wisconsin System schools are launching the Dairy Innovation Hub to help tackle issues facing the state’s best-known industry.With money now released by the Legislature, three University of Wisconsin System schools are launching the Dairy Innovation Hub to help tackle issues facing the state’s best-known industry.
With Harvest Underway, Wisconsin Farmers Continue To Face Uncertain Corn, Soybean Markets | Wisconsin Public Radio
Paul Mitchell, director of the Renk Agribusiness Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said Wisconsin had fewer cases of late planting than South Dakota and Minnesota. He said the state’s dairy industry provides some security for farmers growing corn
UW Agriculture Leaders Tout New Funding For Dairy Innovation Hub
Deans from the University of Wisconsin System’s three leading agriculture programs were in Grantsburg on Tuesday promoting new funding from state lawmakers aimed at helping the Wisconsin’s struggling dairy industry
Baldwin Says New Money For Dairy Innovation Could Help Farmers, Processors Weather Tough Market
Last month, the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center for Dairy Research and the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association were selected to host one of three initiative sites. The group received $454,392 to provide grants and workshops to producers and processors in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, South Dakota and Illinois.
Wisconsin Veterinarian wins 2019 Honorary Klussendorf Award
Noted: From the moment she interviewed for the then soon-to-opened University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine, this veterinarian embraced her new community and its grand cow show at World Dairy Expo. Throughout the process, McGuirk helped transform dairy cattle health care.
Wisconsin farmers coping as dairy herd declines
Quoted: “It’s a shake-out. This is not just a bump on a trend line. This is a pretty big change,” said Mark Stephenson, Director of Dairy Policy Analysis at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
UW-Madison, Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association Hosting National Initiative To Support Dairy Industry
During a visit to a Westby creamery on Monday, U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., says she’s hopeful the Senate will approve an $18 million increase for the Dairy Business Innovation Initiative.
Extremely Wet Fall Challenging Farmers Waiting For A Window To Spread Manure
“We’ve not been able to get the corn/sileage off nor the other crops in order to make those applications. A lot of farmers have been waiting for weather conditions to improve so they can get that manure out there,” said Kevin Erb, conservation professional training coordinator with the University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension.
State budget committee releases funding for suicide hotline
Other items: Members of the committee also voted unanimously to release $1 million this year and nearly $8 million next year provided in the state budget for a UW System Dairy Innovation Hub housed at UW-Madison, UW-Platteville and UW-River Falls. Committee members also voted to release $22.5 million annually in performance-based funding to the UW System.
Analysis: 8 Percent of Wisconsin’s Corn Crop Is Mature
It’s no secret it’s another tight year for row crop farmers in the Corn Belt and Upper Midwest. Analysts say the uncertainty hasn’t changed.
“That’s the status of the farm economy,” said Paul Mitchell, an economist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “It’s waiting for results for this uncertainty while we go in to harvest.”
Billions of dollars are at stake as Wisconsin debates whether to legalize marijuana
Noted: If Wisconsin were to legalize cannabis for medical uses, there would be a net $1.1 billion positive effect, bringing in additional fees and health benefits while potentially reducing opioid overdoses, addiction and traffic fatalities over five years, according to a cost-benefit analysis by the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s La Follette School of Public Affairs. If the state were to decriminalize cannabis, it would save an additional $30 million in decreased criminal justice costs.
Renewable plastics out of corn cobs
When Pyran’s chemical engineering team from the University of Wisconsin-Madison embarked on their new project aimed at tackling the enormous problem of replacing oil to make paints and plastics, they had a feeling they would generate some interesting research, but the discovery they made surprised even them.
How Trump’s Presidency Looks from Rural Wisconsin
Quoted: “Is it backfiring?” Mark Hagedorn, a dairy expert at the University of Wisconsin-Extension, asked about farmers’ decision to back Trump. “I think we can argue that six ways to Sunday.”
UW receives more than $450,000 to drive regional dairy growth
UW-Madison is receiving more than $450,000 in federal funding for an initiative aiding farmers and businesses in Wisconsin to innovate and modernize the dairy industry.
UW picked as 1 of 3 regional dairy innovation centers across the country
Sen. Patrick Leahy says the state of Vermont has won a grant to create one of three regional dairy business innovation centers across the country. The recipients, which includes centers at the University of Wisconsin and the University of Tennessee, were announced Wednesday.
Farmers, chefs, UW researchers connect to create more flavorful produce
What started as a small tasting in a church basement five years ago has grown to a full-fledged foodie event bringing together hundreds of people to meet UW-Madison professors, plant breeders, farmers and some of Madison’s top chefs.