Consumer preference can change any farms business model pretty quickly.  Introducing the beet.  A new health trend that's got Adam D'angel, a UW grad who used his master's work to guide plant development for beets.  Carrie Mess investigates what's happening.

Wisconsin's dairy industry is closely monitoring guidelines from the Food and Drug Administration over the use of "milk" on labels of plant based beverages.  Although not involved in policy work, Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin is all about maintaining the good name of dairy.  Pam Jahnke talks to Chad Vincent, president and CEO of Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin, about what he's observing through this period of development with FDA.

Cheese storage numbers and global milk trends kick off the conversation with Matt Tranel from EverAg.  He talks with Pam about how available supplies of cheese in storage is catching the markets attention.

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Alfalfa is on the minds of many when it comes to implementing it into a crop rotation. But it is also a key focus of researchers to determine its true value. Deborah Samac, Supervisory Research Geneticist  and Research Leader for the Plant Science Research Unit at the USDA Agricultural Research Service in Minnesota says there are diseases affecting being able to get alfalfa started.

“There’s a number of pathogens that we call oomycetes, als known as water molds that can swim in the water layer,” explains Samac. “But the disease causing the most problems is called aphanomyces root rot.”

Their current research is focused on identifying new pathogens causing problems as with each advance of uncovering potential problems and solving them, they also find new pathogens that are causing problems. 

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The month of March is time for basketball brackets, high school sports games, and also more time spent with family and friends. 75th Alice in Dairyland, Taylor Schaefer, explains more about how to make these celebrations complete with Wisconsin Dairy products.

“In Wisconsin we have more than 1,200 licensed cheesemakers that create over 600 varieties, types, and styles of cheese,” says Schaefer. “We win more awards than any other place in the world for our cheese.”

Throughout the month of March, Schaefer will be conducting the “Wisconsin Artisan Bracket.” This gives Wisconsinites the opportunity to vote for their favorite kinds of cheese. The first round of cheeses to face off are cheese spreads and gorgonzola.

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Cedar Crest Ice Cream and the Wisconsin 4-H Foundation have announced the winner and finalists of the 2022 Cedar Crest Ice Cream Flavor Creation Contest. The finalists will get a Cedar Crest Ice Cream party, and the Grand Prize winner will have an ice cream party and will be awarded $500. Your Grand Prize winner is the Pilsen Skylighters of Kewaunee County for their flavor, Cow Lick. Cedar Crest Marketing Manager Jennifer Flierl has the details.

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Caregiving, expanding broadband, small business retirement plans, and increasing livable communities.  Those are some of the goals that AARP of Wisconsin's focused on at the state capitol

Pam Jahnke visits with Martha Crannley, State Director AARP, about early meetings their having with senators and assembly representatives to explain the value in funding these areas.

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Young people are engaging in early leadership opportunities including those available through the National Farmers Union.  Charitee Seebecker visits with Wisconsinite Olivia Roth about her eight years of involvement in different elements of leadership training.

Ashley Huhn from the Steffes Group joins Pam Jahnke for their weekly update.  Consignment sales are hot right now offering people with just one item a chance to be involved.  Paid for by Steffes Group.

The Wisconsin dairy population is definitely in focus when it comes to spending beef checkoff dollars.  Tammy Vassen, executive director of the WI Beef Council, explains what they're doing with checkoff dollars to help reveal value for the dairy beef we're producing.  Paid for by WI Beef Council.

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The White House released a plan for eliminating greenhouse gas emissions from transportation. Conducting research to help aid this decarbonization plan are University of Wisconsin researchers. Tim Donahue, director of the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center says their work started in 2007 and it will take years of additional research to reach a point of producing enough advanced biofuels but he knows we'll get there.

“We are working on projects that would allow us to make transportation fuels with lower net greenhouse gas emissions,” explains Donahue. “The way we do that is by using excess crop material, non food crop material, as the source of those fuels as replacements or supplements to fossil fuels.”

Donahue and other researchers are looking at the whole process of decarbonization of the transportation sector. Everything from what crops we would grow, how we can make them more productive, how we can stimulate root development so that they store more carbon below ground, and where we would grow them in the United States.

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Accurate weather forecasts are critical to local government. Whether it’s deciding when to start salting and plowing operations, staging barricades for an expected flood-related road closure or planning maintenance operations, decisions made based on the forecast impact both operations and the budget.

The key to improving weather forecasts and improving accuracy is knowing what actually happened on the ground—did the forecasted amount of rain fall? How much water is in the 8 inches of snow remaining on the ground?

The National Weather Service, the Wisconsin State Climatologist, and University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Division of Extension need your help in improving forecast accuracy—and it takes less than two minutes per day to check an official rain gauge once daily and provide the number to the National Weather Service.

Meteorologist Taylor Patterson shares more about what she does everyday and how the general public can become weather observers through the Community Collaborative Rain, Hal and Snow Network or CoCoRaHS.

To learn more or sign up to be a weather observer, visit wisconsinweatherwatchers.org

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The Wisconsin Beef Council is all about research, promotion and education for the states beef producers, but that also includes a lot of dairy animals in Wisconsin.

Tammy Vassen, executive director of the WI Beef Council, explains how the dairy population in the state are benefiting from some of the research the WI Beef Council's invested in.

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Herefords weren't originally the breed of choice for Jerry Huth - but when an attempt at raising angus beef cattle failed, Hereford became his breed.  Today Huth Polled Herefords is one of 7 operators across the nation being recognized for their environmental practices.  Pam Jahnke visits with Jerry Huth about his philosophies.

March first marks the deadline for applications on the states century/sesquicentennial farm and home recognition.  Charitee Seebecker talks to WI State Fair Coordinator, Jill Albanese, about the programs origins and why people should take time to apply.

Cyber security may not be something a lot of farms and agribusinesses are thinking about - but they should.  Stephanie Hoff visits with Byron Franz, FBI Special Agent in Milwaukee, about how cyber threats are increasingly targeting agriculture and the food sector.

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