Forage Production and Management

▶ Watch: Focus on Corn Silage

The second Focus on Forage webinar in the 2025 series, Focus on Corn Silage, features research-based corn silage resources and management strategies to keep fields productive over time.

▶ Watch: Focus on Alfalfa Companions

The first Focus on Forage webinar in the 2025 series, Focus on Alfalfa Companions, features research-based alfalfa establishment resources and new management strategies to keep stands productive over time.

Research Brief: 2024 Wisconsin bale grazing project

In 2023, a grazing farmer network in northwestern Wisconsin was asked to identify the greatest needs for research. At the top of their list was the practice of winter bale grazing. We designed a research project that sought to answer some of their questions about the practice.

What should I plant in my pasture?

This fact sheet was designed to walk you through that decision-making process and assist you in selecting forage species that are compatible with your farm and complimentary to each other. While there are many great seed mixes that are commercially available, this resource is intended to empower farmers to develop an establishment plan that fits their objectives and design a seed mix that is tailored to their farm.

2024 Wisconsin Corn Hybrid Performance Trials

In 2024, grain and silage performance trials were planted at 12 locations in four production zones: the southern, south central, north central, and northern zones. The purpose of these trials is to provide unbiased performance comparisons of hybrid seed corn for grain and silage available in Wisconsin.

 What is Open-Source Software, and How Does it Fit in Ag?

As more farmers have now grown up in the age of computers and software development, we are starting to see an increase in open-source projects related to agriculture. Open-source software (OSS) is a software product for which the code is freely available to the public to use or modify.

Grazing corn stalks

Similar to corn stover removal, impacts on soil health include nutrient removal and residue removal, grazing corn stalks should also consider soil compaction. Nutrients removed from a field when corn stalks are grazed are much lower than most farmers think

Harvesting Corn Stover

Stover is the stalks, leaves, husks, and cobs left after corn grain harvest.  Removing corn stover removes valuable nutrients from the field and increases the potential for soil crusting, erosion, and—long term—reduced water infiltration rates due to reduced soil organic matter levels.   

▶ Watch: Selecting Suitable Corn Hybrids

In the October 9, 2024 Badger Crop Connect webinar, Dr. Harkirat Kaur, assistant professor and extension specialist in corn agronomy, discussed the 2024 corn performance trials and their harvest progress and outlined selection criteria for successful corn hybrids in Wisconsin cropping systems.

Mycotoxins: Beware of this hidden danger in this fall’s harvest

In Wisconsin, it seemed like every passing rain cloud dropped an inch or more of rain, and those clouds just kept coming. Combine record moisture in some areas with high humidity and clouds, and it was the perfect storm for slugs, molds, and diseases to infiltrate our crop fields and cause damage.