The U.S. Dept. of Agriculture will fund a five-year, $9.9 million study at UW-Madison aimed at greening the dairy industry. The study is part of a $19.5 million initiative funded by the USDA to study the effects of climate change…
Baraboo-based Foremost Farms will close two of its Wisconsin cheese plants due to consolidation, resulting in about 100 lost jobs. The state’s largest cheese producer, Foremost Farms announced the permanent closing of its mozzarella plant in Jackson County. It will…
Sun Prairie-based Renk Seed is in the process of expanding its headquarters to keep up with growing demand. The $12 million project will double processing capabilities and will also significantly increase storage space for both bulk and bagged seeds. The…
Gov. Scott Walker’s trade trip to China has resulted in a signed agreement between Tong Ren Tang, a Chinese medicine company; the Ginseng Board of Wisconsin; and the Ginseng & Herb Co-op that could generate $150 million to $200 million…
Gov. Scott Walker will leave Friday on his first trade mission to China. He will be accompanied on the 10-day trip by a contingent of UW leaders and executives from major Wisconsin companies. China is Wisconsin’s third-largest export market. In…
The USDA reported that about 1.27 million head of Wisconsin dairy cattle produced about 2.15 billion pounds of milk in February, up 0.3% from February 2012 but down slightly from January’s 2.37 billion pounds. Wisconsin cows averaged 1,700 pounds of…
Are you Executive Register material? Time to make sure IB has all of your current information as we get ready to select the Executive Register Class of 2013, Dane County’s business executive who’s who! Be sure to add or update your…
Last year’s hot, dry weather took a toll on the state’s apple crop. According to the National Agricultural Statistics Service, Wisconsin’s total apple production for 2012 decreased 54%, the number of bearing acres fell by 600, and yields decreased more…
The state’s cheese production grew by 4.6% over the past two years to 2.8 billion pounds, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service. It was the state’s strongest percentage gain in 10 years, boosted by a 4.1% increase in state…
Madison’s hope for the Midwest BioLink and Commercialization Center, an agricultural and biology research center envisioned for the city’s southeast side, is fading. City officials have reportedly found it difficult to attract tenants and couldn’t cover a $3.3 million construction…
Golden Guernsey Dairy’s Waukesha facility suddenly shut its doors on Saturday, leaving at least 100 people out of work. According to a report from The Business Journal in Milwaukee, the Wisconsin Dept. of Workforce Development was not notified in advance…
We humans have long had a complicated relationship with forests. Ask most people and they’ll tell you how much they love and want to protect trees – and we tend to wax poetic or nostalgic about unspoiled wilderness, revealing a connection to these ancient places that just can’t be replicated by suburban green space.
Three Wisconsin dairy organizations will merge to create FarmFirst Dairy Cooperative, reportedly one of the largest dairy co-ops in the Midwest. Members of Family Dairies USA, a lobbying and marketing organization; Manitowoc Milk Producers Cooperative; and Milwaukee Cooperative Milk Producers,…
In a letter to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has notified the federal government the state will have the feds set up a health care exchange called for under the Affordable…
The final numbers for the World Dairy Expo are in. Total attendance at this year’s event was 71,788, including 2,950 individuals from 95 countries. That’s up from 68,006 total attendees last year, and included 2,699 people from 90 countries. The…
The Wisconsin Ag Connection reported that this year’s World Dairy Expo attracted a record number of attendees from over 90 different countries. Breed sales resulted in the World Classic 2012 Holstein Sale averaging $33,111 per lot, which was the highest…
The Wisconsin Center for Dairy Research has been awarded one of seven $1 million Challenge grants from the U.S. Department of Commerce to support an effort to commercialize research ideas that will positively impact economic development. CDR, along with state,…
The world may be greener and the air crisper and cooler as summer slouches into fall, but the epic drought of 2012 is not through with Wisconsinites just yet. The impact on many farmers of this season’s unusually hot and dry weather may be felt well into next year – and consumers will likely feel the heat again when they look to put meat on their families’ tables in the first part of 2013.
(AP) - Chris Covelli planted 1,000 zucchini seeds on his farm in southern Wisconsin this spring. Only a quarter sprouted in the parched soil. A few weeks later, he planted 1,000 more seeds and doubled his irrigation. This time, nothing…
On the surface, things have never been better in terms of farm succession. Wisconsin farmers collectively earned an estimated $2.4 billion in net farm income last year, which would set an all-time record. The value of farmland, and the demand for it, has rarely been higher and stronger. Healthy commodity prices have made it easier to run a farm profitably, and Wisconsin farmers are increasingly finding customers overseas. In Dane County alone, farming is a $3 billion annual economic driver.
