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

Five years of results from a long-term Wisconsin study suggest that farmers growing corn or corn and soybeans may be able to improve profitability and agronomic performance by diversifying their cropping systems.

A team of undergraduates from UW-Madison’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences won the North Central Collegiate Weed Science Contest July 17 at Fort Dodge, Iowa. The team consisted of Corey Roddick of Cuba City, Aaron Burke of Oconomowoc, Mike Bertram of Malone, and Mike Dettmann of Johnson Creek. Competing as individuals were Chad Rabe of Fond du Lac and Terry Walsh of Valders.

If you’ve got a lawn-care problem or want to learn more about using less fertilizer and fewer pesticides, stop by the Homeowners Field Day at the University of Wisconsin-Madison O.J. Noer Turfgrass Research Facility. The field day is set for Aug. 23 from 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., and it’s free. The facility is located at 3101 County M, just north of its intersection with County PD near Verona.

The latest developments in University of Wisconsin-Madison crops and soils research will be on display at Agronomy Field Day, Thursday, Sept. 11 at the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences Arlington Agricultural Research Station. Four tours will look at research in crop production, weed management, forage systems, and soil fertility research. The tour stops will be hosted by CALS researchers and extension specialists.

A free twilight tour for plant lovers will be offered at the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences Hancock Agricultural Research Station on Monday, Aug. 4 from 5 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

A native grass that once fed buffalo herds on the prairie may someday feed power plants in the Wisconsin countryside. Switchgrass farming could produce a new cash crop for Wisconsin farmers, while improving wildlife habitat, reducing air and water pollution, and lessening soil erosion, say University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers.

Many new herbicides have become available to Wisconsin farmers recently. Although growers have been applying them for only a few years, weeds are already developing resistance to these newer herbicides, according to R. Gordon Harvey, a weed scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences.

Hjalmar D. (Ham) Bruhn, emeritus professor of agricultural engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, died July 1, 1997 at his summer cottage on Black Oak Lake near Land O’Lakes, Wis. He was 89 years old.

Want to diversify your forage crops while keeping the feed quality of alfalfa? Cup-plant and Kura clover are two new crops that may fit the bill. One is a silage crop, the other a pasture legume. “People can see these crops growing in the field plus walk out into a Kura clover grass pasture at our upcoming field day,” reports Tim Wood of the UW-Madison Lancaster Agricultural Research Station.