Stevens Point — Discovery Farms is pleased to announce the addition of Bill Pearson to its staff. Pearson will serve as an on-farm research coordinator, working with the privately owned network of Discovery Farms to organize and assist on research and special projects. Pearson”s office is located at UW-Stevens Point.

Discovery Farms evaluates best management practices aimed at sustaining air, water and soil resources, while also protecting farm profitability. Core farms participating in the Discovery Farms Program are committed for five to seven years. The goal of this program is to identify the most effective and affordable BMPs and provide information, so environmental rules and regulations affecting agriculture can be based on sound science.

Pearson Pearson grew up in the Monona/Cottage Grove area just outside of Madison, working on local dairy and cash grain farms. After completing his BS degree in Agronomy and Horticulture in 1985, he headed to Idaho to work in the vegetable seed industry as a research technician developing new sweet corn and green bean varieties.

After four years in Idaho, he returned to the central sands region of Wisconsin, working as a field representative for a vegetable processing company. In 1995, he became the agronomist for the Waupaca Land and Water Conservation Department. Pearson worked closely with producers developing nutrient management plans in the Tomorrow/Waupaca Priority Watershed as well as the Lower Little Wolf and Pigeon River watersheds of Waupaca County. To increase the efficiency of nutrient management plan development and to decrease the time needed to develop a plan, Pearson assisted in the development of a computer software program, SNAP2000 (Soil Nutrient Application Program), which improved the efficiencies of nutrient management plan development.

He recently finished his MS degree in Soil Science from UW-Stevens Point. Pearson lives with his wife Becky and daughter Rachel on an old Norwegian farmstead in the hills north of Iola.

The Discovery Farms Program is part of the Wisconsin Agriculture Stewardship Initiative, which also includes UW-Platteville”s Pioneer Farm, adaptive research on individual Discovery Farms and component research conducted at UW institutions. The Discovery Farms Program is in partnership with and may receive funding, support and/or services through UW-Extension, UW-Madison, UW-Stevens Point, UW-River Falls, DATCP, DNR, NRCS, USGS, ag industry organizations (such as WMMB, PDPW and WPPA), county Land Conservation Departments, and county Extension offices. For more information on Discovery Farms, call (715) 983-5668 or go to www.discoveryfarms.org