Division of Extension
Since 2004, programs like Discovery Farms have been working with farmers in Kewaunee County to better understand how practices like cover crops and no-tillage can help keep nutrients on fields and out of waterways, positively impacting water quality.
To evaluate how land use and agricultural management affect water quality, Discovery Farms performed research on varying management systems in two western Wisconsin watersheds. Our main goal was to better understand how agricultural land management decisions affect soil and nutrient runoff.
In April 2026, commercial nitrogen fertilizer prices increased approximately 30% since fall 2025. Fortunately, there are nutrient management choices farmers can make to minimize financial impacts of this sudden price increase.
The goal of this study was to improve understanding of the factors that influence runoff generation during non-frozen ground periods in small agricultural watersheds in southwestern Wisconsin where the landscapes are controlled by dolostone bedrock in order to provide agricultural producers with a manure management tool.
Farms near Lake Michigan in Manitowoc County, Wisconsin were facing a tough question: how much are agricultural fields contributing to water quality problems in the lake? Algae blooms in nearby bays were raising concerns, and phosphorus from farm fields was suspected as a key factor. To get real answers, Discovery Farms partnered with Saxon Homestead Farm (SHF), a fifth-generation, pasture-based dairy operation, to monitor water quality from 2004 to 2007.
Do you know how much soil and phosphorus is leaving your fields during a rain event, or how much difference your tillage choices make from one year to the next? A seven-year study by Discovery Farms set up water quality monitoring stations at the edges of fields across two western Wisconsin watersheds to answer those exact questions with real numbers from real farms.
Farming on steep, hilly land is tough. Keeping soil and nutrients out of nearby streams is even tougher. But data from Bragger Family Dairy in Buffalo County, Wisconsin shows it can be done, and the lessons from this farm still matter today.
If you farm on steep slopes in Wisconsin, you’ve likely watched good soil wash away after a hard rain. That runoff carries more than dirt — it carries phosphorus and nitrogen that your crops need and that nearby streams don’t. A conservation tool called a grade stabilization structure (GSS) may be one of the most cost-effective ways to slow that loss down.
Wisconsin farmers know that what happens in the field does not always stay in the field. Rain and snowmelt carry sediment, nutrients, and other materials off farmland and into streams, tiles, and groundwater. But how do you know exactly how much is leaving, and when?
This study was conducted from 2003-2008 and may no longer reflect current conditions as weather, management practices, and available data have evolved. This research remains valid, but should be considered alongside more recent findings. Wisconsin farmers already use a range of conservation practices to protect water quality. But when do fields actually lose the most […]
Organic and grass-based dairy farms in southwest Wisconsin’s driftless region face a unique set of water quality challenges. The hilly, unglaciated landscape and shallow fractured bedrock create conditions very different from the rest of the state. To better understand how these farms affect water quality, Discovery Farms partnered with Heisner Family Dairy in Iowa County, Wisconsin to monitor water from 2004 to 2007.
From 2003 to 2010, Discovery Farms and the U.S. Geological Survey monitored surface runoff from three field watersheds to measure how this system affects soil, phosphorus, and nitrogen loss.
