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 […]

The website for southwest Wisconsin’s Uplands Watershed Group, for which MFAI serves as the fiscal agent and coordinator, recently featured a new video about small grains such as barley, oats, wheat, and rye.  No surprise that MFAI would make it a priority for our talented staffer, Donale Richards, to film and produce it.  For over […]

MFAI is the recipient of a $250,000 grant from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s Sustainable Agricultural Systems (SAS) program for perennial crop development efforts (see USDA’s announcement here: https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USDANIFA/bulletins/291fdfc). MFAI was a member of a diverse coalition of more than 15 institutions, including universities, NGOs, farmers, bakers, and governmental agencies throughout the […]

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 […]

Two weeks ago, the Uplands Watershed Group met – by video conference, of course. Among other topics, we learned a lot about composting, from basics to refinements.  Thanks to Iowa County Agricultural Extension agent Gene Schriefer and several farmers with extensive experience in composting for educating us.   Here is Gene’s presentation.