Young dairy experts from Door and Vernon counties took top honors at this year’s State 4-H Dairy Bowl, held Jan. 26 at Wisconsin Dells.

Wisconsin’s pasturelands – long the larder of black-and-white dairy cows – can also support grazing poultry. Properly managed and marketed, pastured poultry can turn a profit for farm owners, a University of Wisconsin-Madison study has shown.

Kay Jensen and her husband, Paul Ehrhardt, pasture both chickens and turkeys on their JenEhr Family Farm near Sun Prairie. Their pastured poultry operation opened in 1999 with 500 chickens, doubling to 1,000 chickens in 2000. Last year they raised 2,500 chickens and 50 turkeys; in 2002 they plan to raise 4,800 chickens, 50 commercial turkeys and 100

Stronger milk prices in 2001 led Wisconsin’s farm economy to a dramatic improvement over a disastrous 2000. Milk sales account for more than half of Wisconsin farm cash receipts, and the all-milk price for 2001 averaged about $15 per hundredweight – up $3.30 from the previous year, according to a report by agricultural economists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. Higher milk prices added about $730 million to farm cash receipts last year compared with 2000.

Market forces will continue to set milk prices in 2002, because the federal support price is at $9.90 per hundredweight, says dairy marketing specialist Bob Cropp.

Farmers may be able to suppress certain types of foliar diseases of snap beans and cucumbers by using composted paper mill residuals, according to researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Farmers have the option of signing up their land in the new Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program until at least the end of September. But they should consider the costs and benefits before deciding whether to enroll and, if they decide to enroll, for how long, according to a University of Wisconsin-Madison agricultural economist.

When the soybean aphid first appeared in the United States in 2000, Wisconsin farmers saw what it could do. Where infestations were severe, the aphids and the viruses they transmit cut soybean yields by 10 to 15 percent.

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.

Farmers in Wisconsin may soon have a powerful new tool to help them make decisions about fertilizer that increase their yields and control runoff, thanks to University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers who are studying how to maximize information from agricultural modeling systems.