The College of Agricultural and Life Sciences (CALS) and the Dairy Innovation Hub are interested in better understanding how the Hub’s research and outreach efforts are making a difference. The Dairy Innovation Hub, with its detailed records and broad range of projects, offers a great starting point for this kind of evaluation. Ultimately, this effort will help CALS better communicate the value of its work and ensure that research and outreach efforts are making a meaningful difference for Wisconsin’s dairy industry and beyond.

This project at UW–Platteville’s Pioneer Farm aims to improve how data is managed and protected on modern dairy farms. Today’s farms generate a lot of digital information, but it’s often spread out, duplicated, and not organized in a way that’s useful or secure. To solve this, researchers plan to clean up and organize the data, then create a secure system using blockchain technology, a method known for its strong security and transparency. This will help farmers make better decisions, allow researchers to analyze data more effectively, and give students hands-on experience with cutting-edge technology. The project will also serve as a model for other farms and strengthen the farm’s role in future dairy research efforts.

Modern dairy farms use many digital tools and technologies to manage everything from feeding to milking. At UW-Platteville’s Pioneer Farm, these tools generate a lot of valuable data, but that information is spread across different systems that don’t easily connect. Right now, over 60 different data points are stored across ten platforms, making it difficult to get a complete picture of what’s happening on the farm.

This project will build a system to bring all of that information together in one place. By organizing and cleaning the data into a single, easy-to-use database, the Pioneer Farm team will make it easier to use that information for day-to-day decision-making, long-term research, and innovative technology applications. This work lays the foundation for more advanced projects down the road, including using blockchain to securely track and verify farm data. This project takes the first step in unlocking the full potential of the farm’s digital tools, making the data more useful for students, researchers, and the dairy community.

Alfalfa is a vital crop for Wisconsin’s dairy farms, providing high-quality feed for cows in the form of hay and silage. However, a soilborne disease called Aphanomyces root rot poses a serious threat to alfalfa production, especially in the Midwest. Once this disease infects a field, there are currently no effective treatments, and fungicides have shown little success. Breeding disease-resistant alfalfa varieties is one approach, but not many resistant options are available—and the pathogen can evolve, making it harder to manage over time. To help tackle this challenge, researchers supported by the Dairy Innovation Hub previously identified three essential plant oils that showed strong promise in reducing the disease in lab and greenhouse trials.

The research team will test whether these plant-based treatments can effectively protect alfalfa crops under real-world farming conditions. If successful, this work could offer dairy producers a more natural, sustainable solution to keep alfalfa healthy and ensure a steady supply of feed for Wisconsin’s dairy herds.

This project explores the feasibility of establishing a Choice and Sensory Evaluation Lab (CSEL) at UW–River Falls to support research, teaching, and industry collaboration. The lab would help Wisconsin’s dairy and food industry stay competitive by providing sensory evaluation and consumer preference analysis, guiding product development and market alignment. Beyond benefiting industry partners, the lab would enhance student learning by integrating hands-on research in food marketing, sensory science, and consumer behavior. Additionally, faculty research on food choice, market trends, and sensory methodologies would be strengthened through interdisciplinary collaboration. This initiative also aligns with the priority of the Dairy Innovation Hub to support farm businesses and communities by ensuring dairy producers and processors have access to consumer-driven insights, fostering economic resilience. The study will assess infrastructure feasibility, industry demand, commercialization potential, financial viability, and academic integration to determine whether the lab can be a sustainable addition to the university’s resources.

Wisconsin dairy farms rely on high-quality feed to keep their animals healthy and productive, but current methods for improving forage digestibility are often too expensive or impractical. This project aims to create a Dairy Forage Fractionation (DFF) system that effectively separates parts of forage, like protein-rich alfalfa leaves from fiber-heavy stems or energy-rich corn grain from stover, to improve feed quality and reduce costs. Researchers have designed a concept for the system and are refining it through engineering studies and farm surveys, with initial results showing strong interest but concerns about wet material separation and affordability. The next phase will focus on improving efficiency, analyzing economic benefits, and assessing commercial viability. By combining engineering innovation with practical farm needs, this project seeks to create a practical solution that supports Wisconsin’s dairy industry and promotes farm sustainability.

Mann Valley Farm (MVF) currently relies on conventional tillage to prepare fields for planting, but this method can lead to soil erosion, higher fuel and labor costs, and long-term damage to soil health. While no-till farming offers benefits like improved water retention and reduced erosion, it also comes with challenges such as herbicide dependence and difficulty managing crop residues. To address these issues, the project seeks funding for a vertical tillage tool— an innovative piece of equipment that improves soil conditions without excessive disturbance. Vertical tillage helps reduce soil compaction, enhances water infiltration, speeds up residue decomposition, and creates better seedbed conditions, all of which contribute to higher yields with lower costs. MVF plans to use the tool twice a year—before planting in the spring to maintain soil moisture and after harvesting in the fall to break down crop residues and enrich soil organic matter. By integrating this tool into farm operations, MVF can improve efficiency, promote sustainability, and support conservation-friendly farming practices.

Palm fat, a by-product of palm oil production, is commonly added to dairy cow feed to increase energy levels, including at Mann Valley Farm (MVF). However, concerns about palm oil’s environmental impact, including deforestation, habitat destruction for endangered species, and unethical labor practices, have raised questions about its sustainability. High oleic soybeans offer a promising alternative, providing a locally sourced, eco-friendly feed option that benefits both farmers and the environment. These soybeans have been shown to improve milk fat production, protein yields, and overall milk quality while supporting dairy farm profitability. Currently, high oleic soybeans are rare in Wisconsin, and MVF lacks the equipment to efficiently process them for dairy feed. By acquiring a grinder-mixer, MVF will establish a standard for incorporating high oleic soybeans into Wisconsin’s dairy industry, fostering sustainability, improving milk production, and encouraging widespread adoption of this innovative feed solution.

The principal justification for this project is that FMMO regulation plays a key role in determining milk prices and profitability for the majority of US dairy farms, and we currently lack economic models that can appropriately analyze the implications of proposed changes to FMMOs or their elimination. Given the current status of economic models to assess the impacts of modifications to, or elimination of, FMMOs, we propose to develop a novel dynamic and systems-oriented modeling framework that will allow appropriate analysis of this important dairy policy issue. More specifically, we propose to: 1) Assess the dynamic economic impacts of changes to FMMO pricing formulas and other provisions as appropriate on farm milk prices, farm incomes for farms of different sizes and in different locations of the US, and examine the implications for dairy cooperative organizations and propriety dairy processors and 2) Assess the dynamic economic impacts of the elimination of FMMO with and without transition periods on farm milk prices, farm incomes for farms of different sizes and in different locations of the US, and examine the implications for dairy cooperative organizations and propriety dairy processors.

Dairy production is a major economic driver in Wisconsin, generating 43.5% of the state’s total agriculture activity contributing $45.6 billion to industrial revenues and providing157,100 viable employment opportunities. Vital to the growth of dairy industry is the prevention of any environmental stresses or contagious pathogen (e.g., Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus agalactiae, and Streptococcus dysgalactiae) exposure to dairy cows. Monitoring and preventing such stresses and exposures can optimize dairy production and ensure animal health and welfare. Equally important economic driver in Wisconsin is the vast cropland. Alfalfa is known for its high nitrogen-fixing ability, excellent nutritional value and help grow farm businesses and communities. The proposal will allow us to assess the shock response induced in cows by assessing the alterations to a known set of gene expression pattern (QPCR).

We will use sequencing reads through Oxford nanopore Sequencer to identify and treat any pathogenic exposure prior to becoming a full-blown outbreak. Additionally, the funding will also allow us to find ways to optimize alfalfa heat tolerance by evaluating alterations to a set of heat shock induced genes through QPCR. This portion will be done as a collaboration with Dr. Pugh funded through a DIH-DI3. Stress response and pathogenic exposure of dairy cows can be assessed using milk, blood or manure samples but initially though collection of manure samples (approved by Pioneer-Farm administration) at regular intervals (prevention) or when environment factors change/outbreaks suspected. Control and treated Alfalfa plant samples will be provided by Dr. Pugh to carry out the gene expression analysis.