Two years ago, MFAI surveyed Wisconsin farmers about the merit of creating a program that would discount a farmer’s crop insurance premium by $5/acre for acres planted into cover crops, and the message was clear. Two-thirds of farmers who hadn’t planted cover crops said such a program would incentivize them to do so, and two thirds of those who’d previously planted cover crops said that this kind of program would incentivize them to plant cover crops more frequently or on more acreage.

More and more growers are experimenting with no-tilling organic soybeans. New research shows interseeding cereal rye in spring can improve weed suppression, but timing, row spacing and good stand establishment play a critical role. By Julia Gerlach October, 2020 IN THE FACE of marketplace pressures and mounting instances of herbicide-resistant weeds, a growing cadre of growers are […]

  EAST TROY, Wis. — Analytics are a key measuring tool in professional sports today, but data-driven assessments aren’t limited to that industry. In Wisconsin, agricultural researchers are asking farmers for feedback about a popular conservation practice. Cover crops, commonly used in the early days of agriculture, have made a comeback as a way to […]

Organic soybean producers in the Midwest have developed weed management programs that rely on tillage-intensive measures that include stale seedbedding, tine weeding, rotary hoeing, and inter-row cultivating. While these measures are often effective, there is much interest in decreasing soil disturbance and tillage in order to conserve soil structure and organic matter, and to obtain […]