A long-term southern Wisconsin cropping systems study shows that soils under managed grazing have a number of positive characteristics compared to soils under other cropping systems. [...more]

This case study shares the experience of one Wisconsin farmer who has been growing cover crops on his cash grain farm for twenty years. He presents his philosophy of cover crop use, explains what cover crop management practices have and have not worked on his farm, and describes what benefits he sees from growing cover crops. [...more]

Wisconsin is seeing a renewed interest in planting cover crops to prevent soil erosion, retain or add nutrients, reduce pest pressures and accomplish other goals. [...more]

The Wisconsin Apple Growers Association, four grower networks, one consultant, NRCS and UW researchers are working with CIAS to develop a production approach that reduces grower reliance on high-risk pesticides. These older pesticides, particularly Guthion and Imidan, are targeted for phase-out and reduction, respectively, as the EPA administers the federal Food Quality Protection Act. In the [...] [...more]

Printer-friendly version (PDF) Grain farmers can help the environment by expanding their corn-soybean rotations to include additional crops. Research has shown that expanded rotations can reduce the need for pesticide and herbicide applications by breaking the life cycles of insects, weeds and diseases specific to corn and soybeans. In addition, grain yields often increase in the [...] [...more]

Dairy farmers can reduce their purchased inputs without cutting into their profits. An ongoing twelve-year study of two forage rotations similar to those found on Wisconsin dairy farms compared a diversified, low-input system with a less diverse rotation requiring high levels of commercial inputs. While the two systems returned similar profits, the low-input system incurred [...] [...more]

Cash grain farmers can improve their bottom line by diversifying crops and reducing chemical inputs, according to a cropping systems trial now in its eighth year of economic analysis. Diversified grain systems at two sites have shown better financial returns than a high-input continuous corn system every year since 1992. These are the results from the [...] [...more]

Can environmentally beneficial crop rotations also improve farm profitability? A long-term study underway in southern Wisconsin aims to find out. It blends systems research with strong farmer guidance to measure profitability, productivity, and environmental impacts of six cropping systems. The Wisconsin Integrated Cropping Systems Trial (WICST) compares three cash grain cropping systems and three forage systems [...] [...more]

Wisconsin cash grain and dairy livestock cropping systems have gone on trial. The goal is to identify and evaluate trade-offs of various production strategies. An interdisciplinary team of UW-Madison and Michael Fields Agricultural Institute (MFAI) researchers, farmers, and two county extension agents recently completed the third year of the Wisconsin Integrated Cropping Systems Trial (WICST). The [...] [...more]

An easy-to-use trap may allow Wisconsin Christmas tree growers in the future to market healthy trees with less insecticide. Developed by University of Wisconsin-Madison entomologists, the traps currently are enabling researchers to monitor the pine root weevil. The insect can inflict heavy damage on Christmas trees and requires a lot of insecticide to control. Monitoring the [...] [...more]