We may never know how chronic wasting disease got into Wisconsin’s wild deer herd, but we’re going to get a better idea of how the disease could move across the state’s farm and forest landscapes.

Since the discovery of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in Wisconsin deer this past spring, many individuals have expressed concern over the safety of venison. This fact sheet is designed to give you some background information on CWD, and to answer questions related to venison safety and handling this fall.

In 1999, jobs on dairy farms and in dairy processing plants produced about $1.9 billion in income for 80,500 jobholders in Wisconsin. Total industry sales came to $11.7 billion, or 1.3 percent of the state’s total industrial sales. That’s a pile of money, but it’s only a partial measure of the dairy industry’s contribution to Wisconsin’s economy, according to a researcher at the UW-Madison’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Friends of Troy Gardens have begun a project dedicated to research, education, and outreach at Troy Gardens on Madison’s north side.

The kura clover pastures at the Arlington Agricultural Research station have entered their fourth growing season. The pastures are grazed by dairy cows, and on Wednesday, June 26 they’ll be the focus of a Pasture Day at the station.

Anyone who shops the Dane County Farmers’ Market knows that locally grown food is healthy eating at its best. But did you know that there are many other opportunities to buy fresh, tasty produce, meat, cheese, and other locally grown food directly from farmers and businesses?

A team of University of Wisconsin-Madison biologists and computer scientists has received nearly $5 million to train students to handle the increasingly complex problems that researchers in biology and medicine will face.

Marion Kalb, national Farm-to-School program director with the Community Food Security Coalition, will speak in Madison about linking farmers with schools.

University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers, working with an Illinois city and a Milwaukee County Zoo curator, hope to surgically scale down an urban deer herd that has outgrown its welcome. Sterilizing does should eventually, and non-lethally, pare deer numbers in the Highland Park herd, according to Nancy Mathews, a wildlife ecologist at the UW-Madison’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences.

Women who effectively use health information on the Internet appear to make ongoing use of varied resources there, according to University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers. The scientists’ findings are based on their evaluation of an experimental Internet site they created for women with breast cancer.