Four field tours will highlight this year’s Agronomy/Soils Field Day on Wednesday, Sept. 1 at the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences Arlington Agricultural Research Station.

“Agriculture in Wisconsin … for Teachers” will be offered for the first time Tuesday, Aug. 10 at the Wisconsin State Fair. The one-day class aims […]

On his potato collecting and identifying treks to the mountains of South America over the past 17 years, University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher David Spooner has had more than his share of adventures. He has ridden horses to remote collection sites, been surprised by sudden mountain storms, and experienced harrowing plane landings on Andean mountaintops. But to the man commonly referred to as the country’s leading potato taxonomist, it’s all in a day’s work.

Maps are tools to show you where you are going, but they can also show you where you came from. That principle drives the work of Roberto Rodriguez and Patrisia Gonzales, who study ancient maps, oral traditions and the movement of domesticated crops to learn more about the origins of native people in the Americas.

A series of questions and answers on managing soybeans after May’s monsoons.

Visitors to the Marshfield Agricultural Research Station’s June 30 field day will open the day with an update on the station’s building project from station superintendent Tom Drendel and assistant superintendent Mike Bertram. During the morning program, Mike Casler of the U.S. Dairy Forage Research Center will discuss new grass varieties. Joe Lauer, an agronomist at the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, will review corn response to row spacing and plant population, and CALS agronomist Ken Albrecht will look at new opportunities with clover/grass mixtures.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison will use its share of a three-year, $15 million grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (HS) to investigate ways to detect intentional contamination of the nation’s food supply.

What is the solution to urban sprawl? Some say, tongue in cheek, it’s moving to the city. But others, like Gary Green, a rural sociology researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, are evaluating the effectiveness of exclusive agricultural zoning laws and smart growth initiatives, balancing the aesthetic of open space with the practicality of denser, more orderly development.

Organizers of this year’s Badger Dairy Camp, June 10 to June 12 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, say that camp is full and no more registrations can be accepted this year.

If the family farm in America is thought of as a threatened species, representing a way of life that is slowly dying out, then the black family farm can be regarded as an endangered species, teetering on the edge of extinction.