Even if industrial hemp production became legal, few U.S. farmers would find the crop profitable, according to a University of Wisconsin-Madison study.

If you’d like to enroll in the Wisconsin School for Beginning Dairy Farmers but can’t make it to Madison, consider attending over the internet through the school’s distance education option.

A team of dairy cattle judges from the University of Wisconsin-Madison took first place at the Accelerated Genetics 8th Annual Midwest Intercollegiate Dairy Cattle Judging Contest, Sept. 16 at Viroqua, Wis. The Badger judges, all students at the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, won the contest and had the high individual scorer for the second year in a row.

Craig Grau, a plant pathologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, conducts research on managing soybean diseases. He said he wasn’t looking for any relationships between soil pH and soybean cyst nematode or brown stem rot.

Herbert F. Behnke of Shawano, Roger and Bill Borgwardt of Valders, Guy Gottschalk of Wisconsin Rapids, and Lloyd A. Holterman of Watertown will receive Honorary Recognition awards Nov. 1 from the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Members of the Agriculture Task Force are to be congratulated for identifying many of the challenges facing Wisconsin agriculture, and for suggesting practical ways to address those challenges.

Outstanding producing ability was recognized in each of the six dairy breed shows at last week’s Wisconsin Junior State Fair.

Herbicide-resistant soybeans are a hit with Wisconsin farmers, but corn that’s genetically modified to resist insect pests may have passed its prime in the state, an ongoing University of Wisconsin-Madison survey has shown.

Use of bovine somatotropin on Wisconsin farms may have hit a plateau, with about one-sixth of state dairy farms currently using the technology. This adoption level is well below what was expected of this controversial technology in the debate that preceded its commercial release in 1994. According to a study by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, BST adoption grew from use on 7 percent of Wisconsin’s dairy farms in 1995 to 15 percent in 1999. Survey results in 2001 show that adoption has only inched up since 1999, with 16 percent of farmers currently using BST.

Kent Weigel has joined the Department of Dairy Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison as assistant professor and extension specialist in dairy cattle breeding and genetics. Weigel will also serve as genetics program administrator for the National Association of Animal Breeders, which will provide partial salary support and research funding for the position.