Laura Croal, a 1995 graduate of Catholic Memorial High School in Waukesha, recently served on the Women in Science and Technology panel led by Vice President Al Gore at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The panel was created to review the present state of women in the sciences, and to encourage more involvement and identify barriers to participation. The panel included students, faculty, University administrators, and U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin.

With the farm economy in recession, the goal of

Will last winter’s unusual weather pattern result in damage to alfalfa? Many farmers are asking this question as spring arrives in Wisconsin.

Dairy marketing specialist Robert Cropp started warning Wisconsin dairy farmers last December that it might be time to think about locking in some of those record high milk prices with dairy futures, options or forward pricing.

Over the past eight years, Milo Wiltbank has helped hundreds of livestock producers improve reproductive management on their farms. His efforts have earned him the J. S. Donald Excellence in Teaching Award for Farm and Industry Short Course for 1999.

Dairy judging enthusiasts ages 12 to 19 have a chance to solidify their dairy fundamentals and get a jump on the upcoming judging and showing season at Badger Dairy Camp, June 10 to June 12 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Custom-tailored forage digestibility predictions may soon replace “one-size-fits-all” forage analysis in the upper Midwest. Digestion kinetics adjusts digestibility predictions based on a cow’s forage intake, and more accurately measures the energy value of forages for cows at various intake levels, according to Dave Combs, a dairy nutritionist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. Digestion kinetics formulas, coupled with near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy, should help dairy farmers to fine-tune ration formulations and forage-purchasing decisions.

Auntie Em did the laundry and the cooking, and was referred to as a “farm wife.” But farm women today bristle at that term. Now farm women consider themselves farmers, too. And well they should: They manage and care for calves, milk and feed the cows, take charge of farm finances, and do artificial insemination. They also have a much larger role in decision-making than economists give them credit for. Until agricultural economist Lydia Zepeda did her research, all the economic models of technology adoption assumed that farms had one decision-maker, typically the male head of the household.

Margaret R. Dentine, a dairy cattle geneticist, has been named associate dean for research and executive director of the Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Station at the University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences.

Biochemist Paul W. Ludden has been named executive associate dean of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.