Ants that tend and harvest gardens of fungus have a secret weapon against the parasites that invade their crops: antibiotic-producing bacteria that the insects harbor on their bodies.

In 2001, 2003 and 2005, the University of Wisconsin-Madison Product Development Team took first place at the Institute of Food Technologists’ annual Product Development Competition by creating exceptionally tasty, nutritious and feasible new food items with the potential to fly off grocery store shelves.

Farmers who are considering starting or modifying poultry operations have a new resource available. Poultry Your Way is a free, 124-page book that profiles a variety of poultry systems suitable for the Upper Midwest.

Are you interested in turning your passion for growing flowers into a small business? Do you wonder which varieties to grow for florists or farmers’ market customers? Are you curious how much labor and money are needed to start a cut flower business? The Wisconsin School for Cut Flower Growers is a two-day workshop designed to help new and beginning growers learn the ins and outs of growing and marketing cut flowers.

The annual University of Wisconsin-Madison Short Course Alumni Reunion is scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 28 at Pooley’s Restaurant and Sports Bar on the far east side of Madison. The event will begin at 12:15 p.m., preceded by a social hour beginning at 11:30 a.m. As usual there will be ample door prizes donated by many agri-business companies.

Graduate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in just 17 weeks!

Young dairy experts had the thrill of advancing to two national contests this fall to represent Wisconsin at this year’s National 4-H dairy bowl contests. Vernon, Door, and Richland counties topped the Wisconsin competitions last January, earning them the privilege of competing at the national level.

According to estimates from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, food-borne pathogens account for 76 million illnesses, 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths in the United States each year. As the food industry continues to globalize, food safety is expected to remain a significant public health issue.

Which is more difficult: growing a great crop of heirloom tomatoes, or pricing and selling them in order to make a profit? How do you control the flea beetles in the cabbage and the cucumber beetles in the melons? How do you build fertile soil using organic methods? How much can be earned from an acre of fresh vegetables, and how hard will you have to work to grow and sell them? These and many other issues will be front and center at the 2006 Wisconsin School for Beginning Market Growers.

When Murray Clayton reads news stories about College research or browses through the CALS Quarterly, he often has a unique perspective on the science being covered: for many of the stories reported, he and his colleagues played a critical role in sorting out the t-tests, X-bars and Z scores that transform raw data into meaningful interpretation.