The August 14 Badger Crop Connect webinar featured Scott Newell, alfalfa outreach specialist with the UW–Madison Division of Extension. This year (2024) has been very challenging to manage alfalfa with rain throwing many cutting schedules off the rails, leaving producers with lower quality forage than expected and trying to catch up with higher quality harvests. Scott Newell discusses the potential implications of this and the importance of managing for persistence in alfalfa to maximize overall productivity.
The August 14 Badger Crop Connect webinar featured Bridgette Mason, Wisconsin Assistant State Climatologist. Bridgette gave an update on growing degree day accumulation, effects of cooler days in early August 2024, and trends in precipitation and soil moisture lately.
The July 24 Badger Crop Connect webinar featured Dr. Shawn Conley, Extension Soybean and Small Grains Agronomist and Professor in the Department of Plant and Agroecosystem Sciences, University of Wisconsin–Madison. Shawn discusses preliminary results from 2024 Wisconsin winter wheat performance trials including yield, test weight and disease presence data; cover crop challenges in 2024; and the status of soybean stands across Wisconsin.
The July 24 Badger Crop Connect webinar featured Dr. Damon Smith, Extension field crops pathologist and Professor in the Department of Plant Pathology, University of Wisconsin–Madison. Damon gives an update on what diseases he’s seeing in Wisconsin farm fields in late July 2024. He mainly discusses white mold in soybean and tar spot in corn and management practices for each.
The July 24 Badger Crop Connect webinar featured Dr. Ed Hopkins, Wisconsin Assistant State Climatologist, and Natasha Paris, Extension regional crops educator for Adams, Green Lake, Marquette, and Waushara Counties. Ed and Natasha give an update on growing degree day accumulation, the status of corn and soybeans across Wisconsin, and trends in precipitation and soil moisture lately.
The July 10 Badger Crop Connect webinar featured Jose Franco, a research agronomist with the U.S. Dairy Forage Research Center (USDA). Jose summarized current research efforts at the U.S. Dairy Forage Research Center on cover crops and continuous living cover. Ongoing research includes cover crop breeding efforts, work on alternatives to winter cereal rye following corn silage and some of the benefits of including flowering cover crops, and a whole systems approach to dairy forage systems evaluations.
The July 10 Badger Crop Connect webinar featured Dane Elmquist, a conservation cropping outreach specialist in the UW–Madison Division of Extension Agriculture Institute. Dane gave an overview of the Wisconsin Cover Crop Citizen Science network and highlighted project results. He also showcased the project’s interactive data dashboard and provided information on how to participate in the project for the 2024-2025 season.
The July 10 Badger Crop Connect webinar featured Steve Vavrus, the Wisconsin State Climatologist, giving a brief update about weather and climate conditions in Wisconsin July 10, 2024 and onward. Vavrus talks about the climatic impacts of the heavy rainfall Wisconsin has experienced lately, talks about relevant agronomic considerations, and gives outlooks for future precipitation and temperatures.
The June 26 Badger Crop Connect webinar featured Dr. Brenda Boetel, Professor and Department Chair of Agricultural Economics, and Extension Agricultural Marketing Specialist at UW–River Falls. The grain markets are off of their February 2024 lows; however, prices still remain lower than what farmers have experienced the previous few years.
Dr. Mitchell opens with a quick update on prevented planning options with crop insurance and where we are with crop progress and crop conditions based on USDA NASS data. He then examines various indicators about the current state of farm finances in this year of projected tight margins for corn and soybeans, such as land values, loan repayment rates, interest rates and inflation. Discussion focuses on financial steps farmers can take now as they prepare for fall. Dr. Mitchell closes with some updates on where Congress is with the Farm Bill and some of the changes being proposed for commodity support and crop insurance.
The June 26 Badger Crop Connect webinar featured Bridgette Mason, the Wisconsin Assistant State Climatologist. Bridgette walks through the effects of recent heavy precipitation, looks at the drought (or lack thereof) status across Wisconsin, and wraps up with an overview of weather patterns to come in late June and early July 2024.
The June 12 Badger Crop Connect webinar features Dr. Natasha Rayne, a new Extension faculty specialist in soil fertility. Dr. Rayne introduces us to her and her work and research in soil fertility.
