The University of Wisconsin–Platteville recently awarded five faculty research fellowships to increase dairy-related research capacity through the Dairy Innovation Hub initiative. Known as the Dairy Industry Impact Innovation Faculty Fellowships, or “DI3 faculty fellowships”, the selected faculty members will tackle research projects in the Hub’s four priority areas; stewarding land and water resources; enriching human health and nutrition; ensuring animal health and welfare; and growing farm business and communities.
Funded through a $7.8 million per year investment by the state of Wisconsin, the Hub harnesses research and development at UW–Madison, UW–Platteville and UW–River Falls campuses to keep Wisconsin’s $45.6 billion dairy community at the global forefront in producing nutritious dairy foods in an economically, environmentally, and socially sustainable manner. Since its launch in 2019, the Hub has funded more than 230 projects across the three campuses.
A faculty research fellowship is a temporary position for permanent faculty members. The goal is to provide support for a specific research project and any ancillary costs — including ensuring that the faculty member will have time to conduct the research and support for existing teaching responsibilities.
DI3 Faculty Fellowships are intended to leverage existing UW–Platteville expertise to provide timely results supporting the goals of the Dairy Innovation Hub, with an emphasis on addressing recommendations generated by the state’s Dairy Task Force 2.0, which completed its work in 2019.
The following UW–Platteville faculty fellows were selected for funding:
Raymond Pugh, Department of Chemistry
“Using seed priming to improve alfalfa feed quality and value”
Pugh is an associate professor of chemistry at the UW–Platteville. His research focuses on crop responses to stress and signal transduction to determine effective strategies for maintaining our global food supply and combating invasive crop species.
Project Summary: Alfalfa is an important forage crop with widespread economic impact. According to the USDA, there is a strong correlation between relative forage quality (RFQ), relative feed value (RFV), and animal performance. For dairy cattle, this means healthier cattle with increased milk production. This in turn means increased sales of milk for dairy farmers. Higher quality alfalfa can also lead to higher sale prices for hay. For alfalfa to provide the most nutritional value for cattle, the harvested alfalfa must be of the highest quality and value. Currently, drought poses a major threat to farmers’ ability to grow and yield alfalfa that meets these standards. Despite its deep root system, alfalfa is vulnerable to drought stress during germination, early seedling growth, and the regrowth stage right after being cut in planting years. This project aims to improve alfalfa quality by increasing the level of mid to late-stage growth drought tolerance using seed priming methods.
Joseph Sanford, School of Agriculture
“Establishment of long-term biochar research plots for evaluation of applications to dairy rotations”
Sanford is an assistant professor in the School of Agriculture at UW–Platteville. His research interest is in agriculture wastewater management including farmstead and edge-of-field runoff, nutrient management, precision manure application, water recovery and recycling, pathogen inactivation and transport, and emerging agricultural contaminates such as PFAS. His position is funded by the Dairy Innovation Hub.
Project Summary: Biochar is a potential method for sequestering carbon in soil to improve sustainability and climate smart practices. However, there is insufficient knowledge regarding how biochar amendments impact crop production systems. There is a lack of understanding in high yielding soils under extended dairy rotations, for example corn silage and alfalfa haylage. This study intends to establish biochar plots at UW-Platteville’s Pioneer Farm to assess long-term benefits and risks of biochar applications. Biochar will be amended to fields in both corn silage and alfalfa production. Researchers will monitor short-term impacts on soil health, emissions, and crop production, intending to obtain continuing funding to monitor the sites into the future.
Md Mamunur Rahman, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
“Precision livestock farming: harnessing data and machine learning for enhanced dairy calf health”
Rahman is an assistant professor of industrial and systems engineering at UW–Platteville. Rahman’s research interests include supply chain resilience, green logistics, and process improvement using computer simulation, optimization, and machine learning.
Project Summary: Precision Livestock Farming (PLF), an automated livestock management system, can enhance the economic, social, and environmental performance of dairy farms. However, PLF technologies predominantly cater to the needs of adult cows, leaving a significant gap in monitoring and managing the health and welfare of dairy calves. Calf health management is pivotal for the welfare of the animals and the sustainable future of the dairy industry. This project aims to initiate a pilot project on Pioneer Farm employing precision dairy farming techniques to capture real-time data on calf temperature, feed and water intake behavior, and activity levels from the CowManager® system. Researchers plan to develop predictive machine learning models to forecast potential health issues. The anticipated outcomes of this project include real-time information for dairy farmers to institute preventive measures and enhance operational efficiency in dairy farming through optimized calf health management practices.
Zifan Wan, School of Agriculture
“Improving the safety and utilization of organic fertilizer with high voltage atmospheric cold plasma treatment”
Wan is an assistant professor of animal, dairy and veterinary sciences at UW–Platteville. Her primary research interest is in the application of non-thermal technologies for enhanced food safety and quality to achieve sustainable manufacturing goals. In addition, her research focuses on the utilization of food by-products and wastes for production of value-added ingredients. Wan’s position is funded by the Dairy Innovation Hub.
Project Summary: Wisconsin, a leading agricultural state hosting over 58,500 farms, contributes $104.8 billion annually to the economy. Despite widespread use of animal manure, concerns persist over pathogen contamination and nutrient imbalances. This project explores the application of high voltage atmospheric cold plasma treatment to enhance the safety and quality of organic fertilizers through pathogen elimination and nitrogen enrichment. A plasma-activated liquid (PAL) treatment system will be applied to produce pathogen-free, nitrogen-enriched plasma-activated organic fertilizer (PAOF). This innovative approach could reduce harmful emissions, eliminate pathogens, and enhance nitrogen content, thereby significantly enhancing fertilizer quality and environmental sustainability. The primary focus of this project is to evaluate the efficacy of PAL treatment system in pathogen inactivation and nitrogen enrichment of PAOF. A specially designed scalable PAL system will be utilized for liquid manure treatment. Furthermore, the effectiveness of PAOF in promoting the growth of nitrogen-demanding crops, particularly corn – vital for Wisconsin’s dairy farming – will be evaluated. Moreover, since emissions from manure storages can contribute to atmospheric greenhouse gases, a study on manure emissions during storage will be conducted. It is anticipated that with the reduction of bacterial population in PAOF, emissions will decrease. This project holds significant benefits for dairy farmers by improving feed quality and sustainability, converting waste into valuable fertilizer, and supporting sustainable agricultural practices.
Yanwei Wu, Computer Science and Software Engineering
“Leveraging blockchain for data security in the dairy farm”
Wu is an associate professor of computer science and software engineering at UW–Platteville. She specializes in cybersecurity.
Project Summary: Modern farms have increasingly embraced digital technologies, leading to a wealth of data being generated. One example is the use of sensors and smart devices to monitor livestock and assess animal welfare. Data generated by these technologies is crucial for optimizing operations and ensuring productivity on dairy farms in today’s agricultural landscape. However, there are challenges in safeguarding the security and integrity of this data, as various stakeholders, including managers, operators, workers, veterinarians, suppliers, researchers, regulatory agencies, and industry associations, have access to it and may unintentionally or intentionally alter it. Blockchain technology offers a promising solution by providing a decentralized and immutable ledger for securely storing and managing data. This project aims to investigate how blockchain can enhance data security in dairy farming, with the goal of developing specialized expertise in cybersecurity for the dairy industry.
Contact: Maria Woldt, Dairy Innovation Hub program manager, (608) 265-4009, maria.woldt@wisc.edu