Sunday, August 3, 2008: 7:30 AM-6:00 PM

West Well St. Entrance , Midwest Airlines Center

FT 4 - Cash, Cows, and Conservation: The New Face of America's Dairyland - CANCELLED

Wisconsin's traditional family dairy farms and small artisan dairy processors are leading a revitalization of the state's dairy industry. Although California now leads the nation in milk production, Wisconsin is still home to more than twice as many dairy farmers as any other state. The green pastures of dairy farms have shaped southern Wisconsin's landscape and are key to a profitable and environmentally sound agricultural system for our future. This tour will visit three family dairy farms that each have chosen an innovative, environmentally-friendly way to add value to their products. The first stop will be an organic dairy milking 350 cows using a unique rotating milking parlor. Two hundred acres of pasture surround the buildings, and the family operates another 1200 acres of cropland organically. Members of the R.G. Miller family will share their long-standing organic philosophy and some of the practices they use to keep their cows, their land, and their family healthy. Lunch will be at Fountain Prairie Inn and Farms, a leader in southern Wisconsin's local food movement. We'll share a chef-prepared lunch of grass-fed beef with owners John and Dorothy Priske, who raise Scottish Highland cattle on 300 acres of pasture, restored prairie, and wetland (vegetarian selection available). They've restored their Victorian era home and operate it as a bed and breakfast. The Priske's direct-market their beef to white table cloth restaurants throughout southern Wisconsin. We'll hear their story and take a wagon ride through the prairie. Our third stop will be the Bob and Karen Breneman grass-based dairy. About 1/4 of Wisconsin's 14,000 dairy farms are putting their cows back out on pasture to harvest their own feed. The Breneman's 240-acre farm is entirely under pasture, and Bob and Karen will give us the whys and hows of this energy efficient, environmentally-friendly system. The Breneman farm participates in the Wisconsin Discovery Farms program, a network of on-farm research projects that focus on the environmental performance of agriculture. Researchers will share results of studies on grassland bird use of rotationally grazed pastures, as well as studies on grazing and aquatic habitat, groundwater, and surface water quality.

See more of Events and Field Trips

See more of The 93rd ESA Annual Meeting (August 3 -- August 8, 2008)