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]

The year 2000 began with some of the lowest commodity prices we’ve seen in decades. These depressed prices are making for difficult times in Wisconsin agriculture, and many farmers are re-examining their goals for their operations. Increasingly, growers are looking at alternative crops, farm enterprises such as bed and breakfasts and tourism, and other business diversification [...] [...more]

An ongoing financial study of farms that use management intensive rotational grazing (MIRG) shows that generation of income is the main factor separating the farms with the best financial performance from those with the worst financial performance. The graziers with the best financial performance in this study had slightly higher operating expenses per cow, higher investment [...] [...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]

Purchasing calves (stockers) in spring and selling them in the fall as feeder cattle may be a way to convert pasture to profit for those with a surplus of grass but not a lot of facilities. But managing pasture, animals, costs, and markets plays a key role in determining the level of profit producers can [...] [...more]

All farm types examined here, particularly the low and medium investment farms with high levels of debt, may find an expansion involving sweat equity to be the best option for them.- Rick Klemme Grazing-based dairy farmers considering expanding their herds and constructing labor- saving parlors need to consider the expansion’s effect on profitability carefully. (See CIAS [...] [...more]

Many successful graziers, confident in their grazing and management skills, are now asking: Will an expansion pay for a labor-saving parlor within a modified seasonal calving system to allow me and my family a better of quality of life? Probably, according to the models formulated by a team of UW-Madison and Extension economists, but it [...] [...more]

A livestock operation in northern Wisconsin won’t make you rich, but it can provide a source of supplemental income. That’s one of the findings from a five-year Hayward Agricultural Research Station study that evaluated the feasibility of northern Wisconsin sheep and beef production. The UW-Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences ran the station from 1985 to [...] [...more]

Agriculture and tourism — two of Wisconsin’s most important industries — are teaming up in southwestern Wisconsin. A pilot project has found that tourists, rural communities, and some farmers could benefit from stronger efforts to promote and market agricultural tourism there. In 1990, agricultural tourism project members surveyed 290 visitors to the annual Monroe Cheese Festival [...] [...more]