Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems

Participatory research brings professional researchers together with citizen stakeholders to define problems or questions, collect information, and use it to promote change. This publication addresses on-farm participatory research in sustainable agricultural systems, and draws on experiences using this approach for... Read More

The last decade has seen rapid growth in the number of farm-to-school initiatives in the United States. Despite the proliferation of farm-to-school programs and the significant energy and resources that have gone into their implementation, there have been few systematic... Read More

How do you get kids to eat their vegetables? Americans are bombarded with news about childhood obesity and the importance of replacing junk food with healthier fare. But this is no easy task when children are enticed with empty... Read More

This worksheet, which is geared toward older elementary school children and their teachers, presents basic information about grazing dairy cows. It presents grazing as a feeding alternative that mimics natural systems, protects erodible land, and saves money for farmers. It... Read More

The UW-Madison’s School for Beginning Dairy and Livestock Farmers has received its biggest contribution ever — a gift of $50,000 pledged by FCS Financial Services, a farmer-owned financial services cooperative based in Wausau. The gift will support increased programming and... Read More

Are you interested in turning your passion for growing flowers into a small business? Do you wonder which varieties to grow for florists or farmers’ market customers? Are you curious how much labor and money are needed to start a... Read More

Which is more difficult: growing a great crop of heirloom tomatoes, or pricing and selling them in order to make a profit? How do you control the flea beetles in the cabbage and the cucumber beetles in the melons? How... Read More

CIAS is proud to announce an invaluable resource for high school teachers. Toward a Sustainable Agriculture is a free curriculum that addresses the social, environmental and economic impacts of agriculture. The curriculum provides a critical analysis of agricultural and food... Read More

How would you like to spend three days with successful vegetable growers learning from their experience? What varieties do they grow? How do they manage weeds and insect pests? What are their marketing strategies? The answers to these and other... Read More

If the price of our food reflected the environmental, social and health costs of food production...we’d pay a lot more for it. The Price Tags/Cost Tags describe many of the hidden costs of commonly eaten foods and encourage eaters to... Read More

I must say it was the hardest I’ve ever worked for free, but somehow I really didn’t mind. I knew that the knowledge I gained was priceless.” Those are the words of Mike Tomandl who recently completed a dairy farm... Read More

Learn about grass-based dairying from the comfort of your home with the Wisconsin School for Beginning Dairy Farmers CD set! You can view the Grass-Based Dairy Seminar sessions taught by grass farmers, UW and Extension faculty, and other professionals right... Read More

Did your garden produce more than you could eat or give away last summer? Have you wondered what it would take to turn your vegetable-growing skills into a small business? The Wisconsin School for Beginning Market Gardeners, to be held... Read More

A special cart-building workshop for market gardeners will be offered Dec.2 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Workshop participants will each build and take home their own cart that can be used for a wide variety of tasks in the market... Read More

The Wisconsin School for Beginning Dairy Farmers offers qualified students the chance to attend the University of Wisconsin-Madison Farm and Industry Short Course, special training sessions, seminars in the management of grazing-based dairy farms, farm internships, mentoring by experienced graziers... Read More

People interested in learning more about the Wisconsin School for Beginning Dairy Farmers, or applying for this year's upcoming class, can visit with the coordinator, Dick Cates, at a series of public events this fall.... Read More

Wisconsin has suffered dramatic losses in numbers of dairy farms. While the decrease in part includes large numbers of retiring dairy farmers, the lack of young people entering dairy farming is an even more significant factor in the decline. To... Read More

Successful farmer-to-farmer networks assume that each person has valuable knowledge and experience to contribute. -- Stephanie Rittmann Farmer-to-farmer networks are thriving in Wisconsin as a way for farmers to pool ideas, exchange perspectives, and learn from each other. Some 20... Read More

As one of its first projects, in 1989 and 1990, CIAS collaborated with the Wisconsin Rural Development Center and the Department of Public Instruction to produce a high-school teacher's guide to sustainable agriculture. This guide and its supplement continue to... Read More