Discovery Farms welcomes Jim Leverich to its staff. Leverich will serve as Discovery Farms’ On-Farm Research Coordinator in western and southern Wisconsin.

Teryl Roper likes a good apple just as much as the next guy, but he also appreciates the value of an apple tree’s root system. As a University of Wisconsin-Madison Extension fruit crop specialist, Roper evaluates new apples in Wisconsin, and the different rootstocks to which they will be grafted.

Applications for the 2002-2003 session of the Wisconsin School for Beginning Dairy Farmers on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus must be received by Oct. 1. Classes begin Nov. 11 and run through March 28, 2003.

Plants have never impressed anyone with their intelligence, but they do measure the seasons and tell time. After all, a Christmas cactus blooms only in winter and an evening primrose opens just at dusk.

Prospective students have until Oct. 1 to register for the 2002-2003 Farm and Industry Short Course at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences.

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.

Door County won the State 4-H Dairy Judging Contest held Aug. 7 at the Wisconsin State Fair and earned a trip to compete at the National 4-H Contest in Madison held during World Dairy Expo.

Wisconsin has long been a leading producer of cows’ milk in the nation. Now a new niche dairy industry is continuing the tradition: Wisconsin is the country’s top producer of sheep milk for cheese. The state’s sheep dairy industry, although small, is growing. And a University of Wisconsin-Madison expert predicts that, with continued research and outreach support, the state will remain a leader.

The 9th annual Fruits, Flowers & Vegetables Twilight Tour will be held Monday, Aug. 12 at the Hancock Agricultural Research Station. Activities begin at 5 p.m. and end at dusk.

Spooner Sheep Day, the longest-running field day among the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s several agricultural field days, will hold its 50th event Saturday, August 10 at the Spooner Agricultural Research Station. The first Spooner Sheep Day was held in 1953, and it has been an annual event for sheep producers ever since.