Youth dairy experts from Vernon and Dane counties captured top honors at this year’s State 4-H Dairy Bowl, held Jan. 29 in Portage.

The Wisconsin Brown Swiss Association is offering youth a $500 loan to use toward purchase of a registered Brown Swiss calf. Participants must be between the ages of 10 and 17 as of Jan.1, 2005.

Building on its long history of community outreach, the Department of Landscape Architecture hosted a reception celebrating a new partnership between the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences and the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College.

Managerial projects are one way to match kids to calves, according to Ted Halbach, UW-Madison extension youth specialist. He sees managerial agreements as one of the keys to maintain youth involvement in the 4-H dairy project. To encourage managerial dairy projects, Wisconsin 4-H has released an updated Dairy Managerial Project Agreement, which spells out the responsibilities of those involved in the lease and manages liability issues related to the agreement.

Nominations are being sought for 2005 Wisconsin Junior State Fair dairy themes. Please submit suggestions to Ted Halbach, University of Wisconsin-Madison extension dairy youth specialist, by March 15.

The 2005 University of Wisconsin-Madison Short Course Reunion was held Saturday, Jan. 22 at the Coliseum Bar in Madison. About 125 Short Course alumni braved near-blizzard conditions to attend the annual event.

A team of University of Wisconsin-Madison dairy cattle judges was second high team overall at the 2005 Southwestern Exposition and Livestock Show – Intercollegiate Dairy Cattle Judging Contest, Jan. 16 at Fort Worth, Texas. The Badger team placed first in oral reasons, Guernseys and Jerseys; second in Brown Swiss; and third in Holsteins. Six teams competed.

University of Wisconsin-Madison agricultural economists dusted off some long-idle superlatives to write their year-end review of the state’s farm sector, and they’re fairly optimistic about prospects for the year ahead.

Young dairy experts from Dane, Vernon and Grant counties represented Wisconsin at two national dairy bowl competitions in 2004. The three teams earned the right to represent Wisconsin by placing at the top of the Wisconsin 4-H Dairy Bowl Contest in January 2004.

The College of Agricultural and Life Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison invites prospective students, including high school juniors and seniors, and their parents to preview what the Farm and Industry Short Course has to offer.