This is the first article in a four-part series about three of UW-Madison’s Agricultural Research Stations. The pieces are by Chris Barncard, UW-Madison Strategic Communications. Photos by Michael P. King, UW–Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences.
Rodrigo Werle wonders if anybody is ever happy to see him. He is, after all, a weed scientist specializing in the most unwelcome guests that pop up in Wisconsin farm fields.
“Nobody wants to be in the same field where I do research,” says Werle, an associate professor and extension specialist in the UW-Madison’s Department of Plant and Agroecosystem Sciences. “I want to work where there’s giant ragweed and waterhemp and all the hardest-to-control weeds we have.”
So, when he first laid eyes on the Arlington Agricultural Research Station during his 2017 job interview, he began imagining all kinds of research possibilities. Arlington is one of UW-Madison’s 12 Agricultural Research Stations dotting the state, 10 of which are both working farms and working laboratories. The goal of these stations is to develop useful recommendations for farmers.
Testing new ideas is labor-intensive for farmers who are trying to keep their operations profitable. It requires a commitment of acreage and time. And it demands a willingness to accept the prospect of failure. That’s a lot to pile on top of market swings, weather extremes, and razor-thin margins.
“Our farmers are great partners, but maintaining complex, long-term studies, year after year on their farms would be very difficult,” says Werle. “We can do those studies at our research stations reflecting the soil and practices of the stakeholders in the region, in fields they can walk into to see the results for themselves.”
That was the goal from the start, says Mike Peters, when what would become UW-Madison’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences began establishing research outposts more than a century ago in places like Marshfield, Sturgeon Bay, and Spooner.
“Wisconsin is very diverse when you think of all the soil types and agricultural commodities grown in different parts of the state,” says Peters, ARS director. “We do great work at Arlington, but it sits on 24 inches of beautiful topsoil. What works in that environment is not going to be convincing to someone near Spooner, trying to farm the sandy loam soil there.”
One thing the stations have in common is the way they’ve drawn talented scientists from around the country and the world to work shoulder-to-shoulder with Wisconsin farmers to solve specific problems and keep them competitive in global markets.
Stay tuned for Part 2, featuring the Lancaster ARS.
