Discovery Farms is passionate about collecting credible on-farm research data on private working farms across the state of Wisconsin. Our participating farmers make this work possible and have allowed us to understand the water quality trends in various regions of Wisconsin as well as conservation practices to reduce the risk of potential runoff events. We would like to extend a huge thank you to all of our current and past participants!
Testimonials
“I promised myself to always work to show the positives of farming and the benefits we provide society. While not only preserving our natural beauty and environment, we improve on the past. Discovery Farms offered an opportunity to fulfill that promise.”
“We had the opportunity to be part of an amazing partnership that has developed powerful data. Thanks to all I have had the opportunity to meet and learn from. I hope to use what I have learned and to never disappoint all those who have shared so much with us.”
Joe Bragger
“A lot of farmers, as I also did, apply a certain amount of N to all fields . After seeing NUE, you realize that you shouldn’t . You can save N dollars without yield sacrifice and prevent N from entering the environment .”
NUE Project Participant
“Consider changing the way you manage bean ground. Before working with Discovery Farms, I had been either moldboard or chisel plowing fields planted to soybeans. After seeing the first two years of monitoring results, I began to no-till plant soybeans on steeper ground, and now I do it on most soybean fields. This change has had a big impact on reducing soil losses, which is something our results showed us we needed to adjust.”
“Most of our runoff comes from the spring melt, so we are definitely thinking twice about putting anything out there in late fall or on frozen ground because it needs a chance to work into the ground.”
“We have moved more N applications from pre-plant to side-dress to lower the risk of that valuable N leaving our fields.”
Watersheds
Past Participants
Arndt Farms, Inc.
Info: Arndt Farms, Inc., located in Rock County, is one of the most recent Discovery Farms participants. They are a beef operation feeding out approximately 1,600 beef cattle while also pasture raising about 100 beef cows. Arndt Farms uses a diversified crop rotation including field or seed corn, peas, green beans, alfalfa, and peppermint with conservation tillage.
Bragger Family Dairy
Bragger Family Dairy became the first Discovery Farms participant through monitoring efforts on two streams on their farm in Buffalo County, WI. This is an area with a challenging landscape that demands attention to soil conservation due to their 10-30% slopes. Conservation practices on their farm included dams (grade stabilization structures), waterways, no-till planting, and cover crops.
Riechers Beef
Riechers Beef managed approximately 750 acres of cropland in a corn-soybean rotation in Lafayette County, WI at the time of Discovery Farms monitoring efforts. The farm also finished beef cattle. Cropland was no-till planted and depending on soil test results and the following year’s crop, surface applied solid beef manure. They also installed barnyard runoff control measures and in-field terraces.
Saxon Homestead Farm, LLC
At the time of Discovery Farms monitoring efforts, Saxon Homestead Farm operated approximately 925 acres of owned and rented cropland with livestock grazing 600 acres under an intensive rotational grazing system. The farm, located in Manitowoc County, WI, also included roughly 425 cows, 400 young stock, and 200 stocker and feeder steers. The dairy is pasture based and managed with a spring calving season. The farm also used a phosphorus-based nutrient management plan.
Dry Run Watershed Project
Info: Three surface edge-of-field sited were monitored within the Dry Run watershed (18,000 acre) in northwest Wisconsin. In the 20 years before monitoring began, this area has seen a transition from dairy farms to grain operations with corn and soybeans as the most common crops.This project evaluated the effects of land cover characteristics, tillage, and fertilizer application on sediment and nutrient losses. A non-agricultural land (natural) site was also selected for monitoring. Conservation practices used by one or both of the participating farms included contour planting, grassed waterways, and conservation tillage.
Rodger Rebout and Sons Farm
Info: Roger Rebout and Sons Farm is a recent participant in the Discovery Farms program. They have a large grain farm in Rock County, WI. They grow about 4,000 acres of corn and soybeans with some winter wheat and alfalfa. The farm uses strip tillage and has been trying out overwintering cover crops.
Soaring Eagle Dairy
Soaring Eagle Dairy is located in Manitowoc County, WI. At the time of Discovery Farms monitoring efforts, Soaring Eagle Dairy operated approximately 1,120 acres of owned and rented cropland. They managed their red clay soils with phosphorus-based nutrient management plans.
Heisner Family Dairy
Heisner Family Dairy is a grass-based organic dairy farm in Iowa County, WI. While Discovery Farms monitoring efforts were ongoing, the farm managed 140 acres of open pastureland (subdivided into paddocks) as well as 350 acres of certified organic cropland where hay, corn, and small grains were grown. On this organic farm, tillage, crop rotation, and cover crops were methods for weed and insect control. The farm planted on the contour and uses grassed waterways and nutrient management plans.
Breneman Farm
Breneman Farm in Columbia County, WI was an intensively rotationally grazed dairy farm at the time of Discovery Farms monitoring, with 200 acres of pasture land divided into 42 paddocks. The dairy included 80 cows and associated young stock and used a nutrient management plan.
Tile Project
Info: Discovery Farms in Wisconsin and Minnesota worked together through a Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Conservation Innovation Grant (CIG) to explore tile drainage timing and losses. Three farms in Wisconsin were intensively monitored and sampled. Each of these farms were located in northeast Wisconsin (Door, Manitowoc, and Shawano Counties) and were located on a dairy farm. The size of the farms and their crop rotations were each different. The participating farms for intensive tile monitoring efforts were Olson Family Farm, Litz Dairy Farm LLP, and Wagner Farms.
Pagel’s Ponderosa Dairy
At the time of Discovery Farms monitoring efforts, Pagel’s Ponderosa Dairy consisted of approximately 1,400 cows and 1,600 acres of cropland in Kewaunee County, WI. Several conservation practices for reduced soil erosion and nutrient loss were used on the farm including conservation tillage, grassed waterways, extended crop rotations, filter strips, and nutrient management plans.
Koepke Farms, Inc.
Koepke Farms is a dairy farm located in Waukesha and Dodge Counties, WI. During the period of Discovery Farms monitoring efforts, Koepke Farms managed approximately 1,000 acres of cropland which grew corn grain, corn silage, alfalfa, soybeans, and winter wheat. The farm also used no-till planting, low manure application rates, soil testing on all cropland, grassed waterways, cover crops, and a barnyard runoff system.
Jersey Valley Watershed Project
Info: Six surface edge-of-field sites were monitored within the Jersey Valley watershed (4,500 acres) in the Driftless Region of southwestern Wisconsin. There are many dairy farms in this watershed, with common crops including grain and silage corn as well as alfalfa. Most of the sites were focused on agricultural land uses; however, two sites were selected to monitor non-agricultural land cover (natural and urban). This project evaluated the effects of land cover characteristics, tillage practices, and fertilizer application on the timing and magnitude of sediment and nutrient losses. The participating farms included either dairy or beef operations with grazing or corn/alfalfa rotations. Farming in this region is often planted on the contour due to the steep slopes of the region.