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.

Roger Wyse, dean of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences (CALS) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison since 1992, announced his resignation Monday, June 23, effective immediately. The attached letter containing reasons for Wyse’s resignation was delivered to Chancellor David Ward Monday morning.

If you’re interested in learning some of the latest crop-management techniques that may increase grain and forage yields and profitability, check out Summer Field Day July 1 at the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences Marshfield Agricultural Research Station.

Reducing herbicide rates can save Wisconsin corn and soybean producers $10 per acre, say researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Reduced rates of post-emergent herbicides can control giant foxtail, pigweed, and lambsquarters without affecting yields, when combined with rotary hoeing or cultivation.

Jerry Doll, extension weed scientist, is comparing reduced herbicide rates with full rates over five years at Lancaster Agricultural Research Station. The research integrates mechanical control and measures yield and the weed seed bank. Mechanical-only weeding systems are included in the trials to compare their effectiveness to the use of herbicides. A primary focus of the research is to analyze what happens to the seed bank in the full range of weed control strategies. Weeds being studied include lambsquarters, pigweed, velvetleaf and foxtails. This is the final year of the study.

Luck had something to do with it, but hard work, brilliance and a knack for bringing people together have distinguished the career of dairy scientist Neal Jorgensen. After 35 years at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Jorgensen will retire June 30 as executive associate dean of UW-Madison’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences.