Agriculture Working Group

The Agriculture Working Group produces and shares adaptation and mitigation strategies for Wisconsin’s diverse agricultural industries. Our audience includes Wisconsin scientists, educators, policymakers, interest groups, and citizens. We generate strategies collaboratively through applied research. Our outreach addresses the changing needs of agricultural producers and supports agricultural industries and the public policy process. The Agriculture Working Group actively engages and collaborates with researchers, specialists from government and nonprofit entities, and the agricultural industry itself.

There are many agricultural impacts connected to Wisconsin’s changing climate such as the continued trend towards more frequent heavy rainfall events, causing increased loss of nutrients into surface and groundwater and increased soil erosion. These changes are negatively impacting soil carbon storage, crop productivity, and weather resilience. Animal agriculture, including Wisconsin’s dairy industry, is also affected in significant ways.

Recommended Solution

The Wisconsin Environmental Mesonet, or Wisconet, helps farmers, educators, and researchers make informed decisions about Wisconsin’s weather. Launched in 2022, the Wisconet delivers near real-time data from weather stations across Wisconsin and provides tools including growing degree days, pest and disease tracking, and a cattle comfort index. Wisconet was developed with funds from Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation and the Wisconsin Rural Partnerships Institute, which is supported by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

Wisconsin could face economic losses of up to $385 million annually due to climate change based on the methods of Hsiang et al. (2017). County-level data used to create this estimate can be found at this website by the same authors. Southern counties face the largest losses based on the impact of current and projected heat on crop growth and the large baseline contribution of these counties to the state’s production.

Strategies like diversifying crops, timing, and technology could help, though farmers have historically made few adjustments. Rising climate-related volatility in corn and soybean revenue will increase financial pressure on producers and lenders.

Recommended Solution

To manage rising climate risk, farmers and agriculture stakeholders should build resilience through soil health and water management strategies, even if short-term returns are limited; stabilize income with off-farm work, ecosystem markets, or renewable energy; and use insurance and other financial risk management tools tailored to shifting risks. Policymakers and agencies should support research-informed adaptation and mitigation actions.

Heat stress in dairy cattle and other livestock poses concerns for animal health, welfare, and production. Research at the University of Wisconsin–Madison has shown significant impacts of heat stress across all life stages of dairy cattle. New technologies now enable producers to monitor animal body temperature in real time, better evaluate production losses and costs, and measure greenhouse gas emissions from production facilities.

Recommended Solution

Implement heat stress mitigation strategies for dairy farms including increasing airflow with well-positioned fans, using sprinklers or soakers with timed cycles, and managing animal handling to reduce added stress. Dairy farms should also monitor barn temperature and humidity to guide timely interventions and balance ventilation energy costs against milk production losses.

Explore

• Heat Abatement in Dairy Facilities
• Ventilation and Milk Losses
• Animal Handling During Heat Stress

Agricultural workers’ health and safety risk levels are increasing as Wisconsin’s climate becomes warmer. Rising temperatures, shifting weather patterns, and an increased frequency of extreme events create challenges for those who work in outdoor spaces as well as inside livestock buildings and greenhouses. New Wisconsin state regulations require employers to develop heat prevention plans when temperatures exceed 80 degrees Fahrenheit. This marks a proactive shift toward worker safety.

Recommended Solution

Continue to prioritize worker health and safety as temperatures rise and weather patterns shift. While some states have reduced protections, Wisconsin’s continued commitment to preventative measures, such as requiring safeguards when temperatures exceed 80 degrees, could offer a competitive advantage in attracting and retaining a limited agricultural workforce by demonstrating a strong commitment to worker well-being.

Explore

• How to Avoid the Risks of Heat Stress

There have not yet been significant, standardized shifts in recommended crop production practices in Wisconsin due to climate change. However, producers must increase vigilance to address new risks and challenges posed by climate change. Increased fluctuations in winter and summer temperatures decrease winter survivability of perennial crops and can decrease pollination.

Variability in rainfall increases crop stress, which can negatively impact yield. Disease and insect management is becoming more challenging as warmer temperatures, humidity, and heavy rains favor certain pathogens and expand the range or number of generations of insect pests, threatening crop yields.

Recommended Solution

Producers will need to introduce more crop contingency planning. They need to be prepared to replant or replace crops that don’t survive and increase the ways they scout for pests. A changing climate may also impact the types of crops that can be produced in Wisconsin. As Wisconsin warms, specialty crops like vegetables and fruit may become more viable.

Increases in the intensity and changes in frequency of rainfall events are impacting both water quantity and quality. Changes to water are among the largest climate change issues that affect Wisconsin agriculture. More intense and irregular rainfall disrupts the timing and balance of water availability while increasing the movement of soil and nutrients into water systems. These changes threaten water quality, crop productivity, and soil health, requiring adaptive practices in both water management and soil conservation.

Recommended Solution

Apply in-field and field-edge practices that reduce runoff risk and improve water quality in response to extreme and increasingly erratic precipitation. Key strategies include:

• Improving nutrient application recommendations and increasing adoption
• Expanding living plant cover and minimizing soil disturbance
• Establishing perennial buffers and wetlands
• Modernizing tile drainage systems in coordination with conservation drainage practices

Explore

• Dr. Steven Hall explaining an assessment of practices to protect water quality as a part of developing a Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy for Wisconsin

Wisconsin must accelerate the continued adoption of agricultural land-use, as well as land and animal management strategies, that decrease the industry’s greenhouse gas emissions, promote soil carbon sequestration, and increase climate impact resiliency. Wisconsin experienced an overall 12 percent decline in greenhouse gas emissions from 2000 to 2022. However, emissions from the agricultural sector increased by 10 percent, the second-highest absolute increase across all sectors after residential. As of 2022, agriculture was responsible for 18 percent of Wisconsin’s greenhouse gas emissions, with only electric power generation (26 percent) and transportation (25 percent) being greater.

Greenhouse gas mitigation from manure storage can be expensive to implement, with little return on investment. However, manure management plays a significant role in greenhouse gas emissions, particularly methane and nitrous oxide, particularly from liquid/slurry manure storage.

Recommended Solution

Implement lower-cost mitigation practices for greenhouse gas emissions from manure storage. Lower-cost options, such as applying manure during the growing season and lowering the acidity to 5.5 or below, cut emissions while helping retain valuable nitrogen. Precision application and immediate incorporation into soil can also help reduce nitrogen losses and limit nitrous oxide emissions.

Higher cost options, like liquid-solid separation and advanced filtration, can lower methane, nitrous oxide, and ammonia emissions by reducing the amount of organic matter and nitrogen in storage. Anaerobic digestion captures methane for energy or converts it into renewable natural gas, offering both environmental and economic benefits

Several farming practices, such as cover crops and reduced tillage, are promoted as improving soil health, sequestering carbon and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. However, it takes years to detect changes in soil organic carbon, and we need a better understanding of how much these practices help sequester carbon. To help address this issue, the Soil Organic Carbon Network is collecting samples across Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa to better understand practices and soils that correlate with increasing soil carbon so we can better educate producers on the most promising suites of practices.

Explore

• Can Farms Pull Carbon from Sky to Soil

Interest in agrivoltaics, the practice of combining solar energy collection with agricultural production, has grown among Wisconsin producers. A research facility at UW–Madison’s Lake Kegonsa campus, developed with Alliant Energy, is studying crop growth, pollinator habitat, and design guidelines for sustainable systems. The UW Division of Extension has been active in community-level engagement and conversations about the long-term impact and concerns connected to agrivoltaics and has explored practices such as using solar panels as shade for livestock and production of shade-tolerant crops

Explore

• Five Energizing Facts about Agrivoltaics

Working Group Co-chairs

• Heidi Johnson, Assistant Dean and Director of Agriculture Institute at UW–Madison Division of Extension
• John Shutske, Professor and Extension Specialist, Biological Systems Engineering, UW–Madison
• Jenny Pentham, Climate Program Manager, Wisconsin Land and Water

Section Authors

• Chris Kucharik, Professor of Agronomy and Environmental Sciences, UW–Madison
• Jeffrey Hadachek, Assistant Professor of Applied Economics, UW–Madison
• Silva Gaku, Farm Financial Outreach Specialist, UW–Madison Division of Extension
• Rebecca Larson, Professor of Environmental Studies, UW–Madison
• Jennifer Van Os, Assistant Professor and Extension Specialist in Animal Welfare, UW–Madison
• Neslihan Akdeniz, Assistant Professor and Extension Specialist in Controlled Livestock Production, UW–Madison
• Damon Smith, Professor and Extension Specialist in Field Crops Pathology, UW–Madison
• Jed Colquhoun, Professor and Extension Specialist for Specialty Crop Production, UW–Madison
• Russ Groves, Professor and Extension Specialist of Vegetable Crop Entomology, UW–Madison
• Malika Nocco, Assistant Professor and Extension Specialist of Agrohydrology, UW–Madison
• Gregg Sanford, Assistant Professor, Department of Soil and Environmental Sciences, UW–Madison