Tag Agriculture
Home-Field Advantage
The minivan is dwarfed by the loading dock at Gordon Commons, so it pulls up several feet short of where trailer trucks routinely make deliveries…
Diving milk prices cut state net farm income by more than half in 2009
Times were hard for farmers across the country in 2009, but they were harder than average for Wisconsin farmers.
Curiosities: Are there years when dandelions are more plentiful?
Mark Renz, Extension weed scientist at UW–Madison’s Department of Agronomy, says that varying environmental conditions ensure that virtually all plants, including dandelions,…
Watching the birds: Agri-tourism could help save colorful prairie chicken
In terms of entertaining courtship rituals, few animals can hold a candle to Tympanuchus cupido -- the drummer of love, commonly known as the greater prairie chicken.
Earlier plantings underlie yield gains in northern corn belt
U.S. farmers plant corn much earlier today than ever before and it seems to be paying off, at least in the north. Earlier plantings could account for up to half of the yield gains seen in some parts of the northern Corn Belt since the late 1970s, a new study has found.
Using DNA, scientists hunt for the roots of the modern potato
More than 99 percent of all modern potato varieties planted today are the direct descendents of varieties that once grew in the lowlands of south-central Chile. How Chilean germplasm came to dominate the modern potato-which spread worldwide from Europe-has been the subject of a long, contentious debate among scientists.
DuPont fellowship funds address plant breeder shortage
In 2008, DuPont’s Pioneer Hi-Bred seed business will provide the plant breeding and plant genetics program with a $60,000 grant, renewable annually for five years, to support two new graduate fellowships.
New test can curb losses of potatoes in storage
UW-Madison researcher Zahi K. Atallah has developed a test that helps farmers identify in their fields potato crops that will not store as long as others, resulting in fewer crop losses.