Historical Background
E.L. Luther points out Oneida County on a map of Wisconsin. Oneida County was the first county in Wisconsin to adapt the country representative system of the University for agriculture extension. University of Wisconsin-Madison Archives Collections.
CALS was officially established in 1889, but the seeds were planted several decades earlier. In the 1870s, the university purchased a farm and established a department of agriculture. In 1880, W.A. Henry was hired as a professor of agriculture, and he spent the next 17 years creating CALS programs, many of which still exist today.
In 1883, the state legislature established the Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Station, the foundation for today’s world-renowned research program. In 1885, UW began offering a course for farmers during the winter, a program that continues today as the Farm and Industry Short Course. The same year saw the beginning of a program called the Farmers Institutes, a traveling school of agriculture for farmers that met at various locations around the state. This was a precursor to the first university Extension agent serving Oneida County Wisconsin, as well as today’s national network of Cooperative Extension Service.
In 1889, the university put all of these agricultural offerings under a new College of Agriculture, with Henry as dean.
Successes and Innovations
In 1890, agricultural chemist Stephen Babcock developed a test to measure the butterfat content in milk. Buyers could then pay farmers according to the fat content of their milk. This test was a simple way for consumers to test the quality of their milk.
In 1911, CALS plant pathologists developed strains of cabbage resistant to a fungus that was threatening Wisconsin’s entire crop. This spawned the later development of disease-resistant varieties of onions, potatoes, beans, peas and cucumbers.
In 1923, biochemist Harry Steenbock worked out how to biofortify food with vitamin D using ultraviolet light, leading to the almost complete eradication of rickets by the mid-1940s.
In 1948, college crop scientists collaborated on irrigation research that helped make Wisconsin’s Central Sands — once considered a windblown wasteland — one of the nation’s leading vegetable production areas.
In 1952, forage breeders released Vernal alfalfa, a winter-hardy, disease-resistant, high-yielding variety that forms the foundation of Wisconsin’s $10-billion-a-year forage industry.
In 1986, horticulturists inserted a gene for herbicide resistance into a woody plant for the first time.
In 1997, geneticists decoded the complete genetic sequence of a harmless strain of the E. coli bacterium, leading to a better understanding of its lethal counterpart.
In 2003, the USDA bestowed its prestigious “Secretary’s Honor Award” on the Eco-Potato Partnership, a group composed of the World Wildlife Fund, Wisconsin potato growers and CALS researchers. The award recognized the team’s efforts to develop and implement more sustainable methods to grow potatoes. Eco-potatoes are now a model for other sustainably grown produce.
In 2018, a research team including CALS scientists examined varieties of tropical corn from Oaxaca, Mexico that can acquire nitrogen from the air by cooperating with bacteria. Better understanding this nitrogen-fixing corn opens the door to developing commercial corn varieties with a reduced need for fertilizer.
Three key players in ongoing nitrogen fixation research at CALS — from left, agronomy professor Natalia de Leon, horticulture faculty associate Claudia Calderón, and bacteriology researcher Valentina Infante — are pictured (standing six feet apart) in an experimental corn plot at West Madison Agricultural Research Station. Photo by Michael P. King
NIFA-Funded Research
Agriculture contributes $104.8 billion to Wisconsin’s economy each year. The state might be known as “America’s Dairyland” because of the top ranking in specialty cheese production, but it also ranks first in the nation for snap beans for processing, cheese, cranberries, ginseng, mink pelts, dry whey for humans, milk goats and corn for silage. (reference: https://datcp.wi.gov/Pages/Publications/WIAgStatistics.aspx)
Research has been critical in many corners of Wisconsin agriculture, helping growers increase yields and fight disease and assisting processors as they refine products for consumers.
Specialty crop research has funded advances in Wisconsin potato, cranberry and other vegetable production important to the state’s economy.
The college holds field days at its 12 agricultural research stations throughout the state each summer. Field days, which include many opportunities for researchers to gather input from attendees, cover a wide range of topics related to crops, soils and livestock. All events are free and open to the public.
College researchers and leadership meet with citizen groups throughout the state such as the Wisconsin Potato and Vegetable Growers Association, the Wisconsin Cranberry Growers Association, the Professional Dairy Producers of Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Corn and Soybean Growers, the Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems Citizen Advisory Council and more.
Scientists give public talks, conferences and webinars as part of their outreach efforts, sharing their findings with practitioners, farmers and the general public. The college also hosts an annual Agricultural Outlook Forum that brings together scientists and practitioners to discuss and share knowledge about relevant issues in Wisconsin agriculture.
Unique Agricultural Challenges
Potatoes are an important crop for Wisconsin, exceeding 70,000 planted acres and $320 million in value. Early blight and brown spot, both fungal diseases, impact quality and yield of potatoes. CALS researchers are studying the two pathogens that cause these diseases, and their work has informed growers of new management strategies to control the diseases, including alternative fungicides, careful selection of field sites and planting times, and consideration of nearby crops that could host the pathogens.
Pollinator declines are an example of a biodiversity crisis given the direct link between pollinators and food for people. Bees depend on flowering plants — pollen for protein and nectar for carbohydrates. In the Midwestern U.S., farms grow a relatively small variety of crops, and fields are large and contiguous. For bees, this means fewer desirable flowers in the landscape. CALS scientists are exploring the relationship between the landscape, flowering plants and bees. They have found that flower availability in agricultural landscapes is a dominant driver of bumble bee abundance, occurrence and fitness, and high diversity of crops can benefit all bumble bees. These findings offer opportunities for improving bee habitat at a variety of scales.
Water quality is an important issue in Wisconsin, a.k.a. the “Dairy State.” To feed the state’s dairy cows, Wisconsin farmers grow a lot of corn and soybeans, and many fertilize their fields with cow manure, including spreading manure during winter. Manure contains nitrogen and phosphorus, nutrients that can move through the soil and pollute water. CALS researchers are exploring mechanisms of water and nutrient transport in soil during winter and spring periods. Their work has shown that tillage and manure treatment influence wintertime runoff nutrient losses, soil temperatures, and the number of freeze-thaw cycles of a field. These findings can help livestock farmers optimize fall tillage decisions and winter manure application practices.
Future Research
CALS is committed to working with growers throughout the state to address important agricultural problems. Challenges in Wisconsin include addressing herbicide-resistant weed management, optimizing fertilizer application, limiting nutrient runoff, maximizing water resources and more.
As farmers look for ways to be more sustainable and profitable, CALS scientists can focus on utilizing new technologies, such as unmanned aerial vehicles, advanced imaging and genetic modifications, as well as continuing their close collaborations with growers and producer groups throughout Wisconsin. Researchers and farmers alike are working toward sustainable practices that can help fortify food production, economies and the environment as demand for food throughout the world grows.
Original source can be found here.
