University of Wisconsin

A bottle of Windex led Jessica Rutkoski from a high school in rural Wisconsin to working on crop research and improvement around the globe and back to Midwest wheat fields.

While the dictionary doesn’t include the word “stockmanship,” most livestock producers know what it means: handling livestock in a calm, quiet manner that results in animals that are healthier and gain faster.

Nearly 45% of all agricultural workers in the United States today — 950,000 of an estimated 2.2 million farmworkers — are “unauthorized” migrants working illegally on American farms and ranches.

The new corn silage hybrid evaluation index, MILK2024, is now available — 18 years after its predecessor.

Long before it became a cliché, there were many heroes who never wore capes. I met one: the rail-thin, then-86-year-old Theodore W. Schultz, in his sun-filled, University of Chicago office on a cold, January day in 1989.

Many factors impact fertility and reproduction of dairy cows, including the nutrition of their rations.

Federal policymakers have a problem: Their hope to make corn and soybeans the feedstock for sustainable aviation fuel hit a wall when the aviation industry ruled biofuel from either crop did not meet its “sustainable” guidelines.

The function of soil is to support crop life, human life and livestock.

Dairymen are using more beef semen for breeding their cows to add value to the calves.

Animals are an important part of the sustainable food system.

A challenging year in 2023 has resulted in dairymen reducing the number of dairy cows in herds.

FarmFirst Dairy Cooperative invites dairy farmers to attend the cooperative’s Producer Discovery Workshop series as part of its 2024 Annual Meeting taking place on Feb. 9 at the Wintergreen Conference Center and Clarion Suites in Wisconsin Dells.

Blueberries, pumpkins, apples and tomatoes are all on the agenda for the 28th annual Stateline Fruit and Vegetable Growers Conference on Feb. 19 at NIU-Rockford in Rockford.

Producers faced another challenging crop growing season this year with dry weather and added weed pressure.

With the growing season shifting from June to July, the severe drought began to break apart in some areas of Illinois that then brought on other challenges.

Kendra Downing has learned how to deal with adverse conditions and as a result won the National FFA agricultural proficiency award for agricultural sales — entrepreneurship.

A University of Wisconsin-River Falls team took first place in the Dairy Management Inc. New Product Competition with an innovation that contains dairy ingredients and meets guidelines of offering a calming aspect.

After plowing through a new USDA report titled “Concentration and Competition in U.S. Agribusiness,” I asked an agronomist friend why it seemed that its writers used so much “hem-and-haw” language.

The number in the headline was practically unbelievable: “About 18,000 cattle are killed in fire at dairy farm in Texas,” reported the New York Times on April 13.

The ILSoyAdvisor Soy Envoys are a critical component to the Illinois Soybean Association’s agronomic advantage. These expert individuals are literally in the trenches and in the fields, studying soils, crop growth and pests and making recommendations to growers.

Extending the growing season is one of many benefits annual forages can provide to cattle operations.

Liquidation of the U.S. cattle herd has accelerated the last couple of years due to drought conditions.

Although cattle have a pressure zone and a flight zone, the point of movement for the animal is the eye.

Waves of torrential rainfall drenched California into the new year. Snowpacks in the Sierra Nevada Mountains have swelled to more than 200% their normal size, and snowfall across the rest of the Colorado River Basin is trending above average, too.

The Dairy Business Innovation Alliance announced the 31 companies and cooperatives that have been selected to receive Dairy Business Builder grants totaling nearly $2.5 million.

U.S. consumers continue to consume more and more cheese each year. “The most substantial growth is American cheese,” said Mark Stephenson, director of dairy policy analysis at the University of Wisconsin.

Root, stalk and foliar diseases, as well as stressful environmental conditions, are among the constant threats to yield potential — and going “cleaner and greener” can provide the protection needed.

A pasture is a high-quality crop — not a place — for graziers utilizing managed intensive grazing systems.

The new year is upon us. Most of us are eager to get on with another year, armed with a list of resolutions and a to-do list that can be daunting. Planning for another year, the coming growing season, getting all our financials in order and moving forward is important.

Regenerative agriculture is focused on improving and restoring soil health rather than only utilizing sustaining practices.

Developing the supply chain is an important part of adding value to products sold by farmers to consumers. “We are working in five geographic areas located in Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota for the Grassland 2.0 project,” said Sarah Lloyd.

Wildlife studies have noted significant declines in Midwestern grassland songbirds over the last few decades. The research found the decline correlated with reductions in grazing and hay fields in the region.

Contrary to folklore, three times is rarely a charm. The number three, in fact, often carries woe: “Three strikes and you’re out,” for example, or “Bad news usually comes in threes.”

The first confirmations of tar spot in the United States were in Illinois and Indiana in 2015 and the corn disease has since spread across the Corn Belt. “It’s here and we’re going to have to learn how to deal with it,” said Ryan Gentle, Wyffels Hybrid agronomy manager.

Summer interns for Phibro Animal Health prepared for their summer work during an on-farm training day at the Mitchell dairy farm. The Phibro Animal Health interns traveled to northern Illinois from across the United States.

Shipping dairy products from the United States to other countries continues to be a struggle. “Shipping has become a major challenge unlike anything we’ve seen in the past 20 years,” said Gabriel Sevilla, Proliant Inc. vice president of sales and marketing.

Entries are being accepted for the World Forage Analysis Superbowl, which is open to all forage producers across North America.

Field trials of a new cover crop, CoverCress, are in its third year at the Illinois State University Farm and multiple benefits are being realized as intended.

Tar spot will be a reoccurring problem in the Upper Midwest. “The fungus is established here and it can overwinter here, so it doesn’t have to be blown in like southern rust,” said Damon Smith, associate professor and field crops pathologist at the University of Wisconsin.

Building soil organic matter is important to farmers for several reasons, including sequestering carbon and increasing crop yields.

The Illinois Soybean Association has named its ILSoyAdvisor Soy Envoy class for the 2022 growing season. Funded by the Illinois Soybean checkoff program, the Soy Envoys represent a partnership between ISA and the Illinois Certified Crop Adviser Program.

Embracing the role model within themselves is important for women in agriculture. “Any time I have the opportunity to engage with a group of women that love agriculture as much as I do is a good day,” said Kim Kidwell.

Liquidation of the nation’s cattle herd is expected to continue in 2022. “The first major trend we’re going to be seeing this year is herd liquidation,” said Elliott Dennis, agricultural economics assistant professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

No single grazing system will work for all cow-calf operations. “I work with a lot of producers and we do a lot of different things,” said Mary Drewnoski, beef systems specialist and animal science associate professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Concerns about lofty input prices and the limited availability of fertilizer this spring have some corn growers planning to plant soybeans back-to-back.

Winter has definitely tightened its grip on us this week. We have 12 inches of new snow accompanied by gusty winds and far below normal temperatures. I’m feeling a little cabin fever since us old guys are supposed to be very careful about scooping snow by hand.

Weeds don’t always impact pastures and animal performance. “Weeds can impact desirable forage quality, quantity, palatability, animal heath and performance, but there are a lot of factors that determine what that impact is,” said Mark Renz.

The energy from raindrops hitting bare soil will detach the soil particles and disperse them, which initiates erosion.

U.S. consumers are increasing the amount of dairy products they eat while decreasing the amount of milk they drink.

Alfalfa can be a high quality source of protein for dairy cow rations. “Perhaps it makes more sense to grow alfalfa this year than buy soybean meal,” said John Goeser, animal nutrition director at Rock River Lab and adjunct professor in the animal and dairy science department at the University of Wisconsin.