By Blake Jackson
Rodrigo Werle jokes that no one is ever glad to see him. As a weed scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Werle studies some of the most persistent weeds plaguing farm fields.
“Nobody wants to be in the same field where I do research,” says Werle, associate professor and extension specialist in the 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.”
At UW-Madison’s network of 12 Agricultural Research Stations, including Arlington where Werle first interviewed in 2017, scientists test new practices on working farms. These stations allow researchers to run long-term trials that would be difficult for farmers managing daily pressures.
“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.”
Mike Peters, director of the stations, says the statewide network ensures solutions are relevant across Wisconsin’s diverse soils and crops.
“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.”
At Lancaster Station, Werle and colleague Daniel Smith are experimenting with cover crops to fight herbicide-resistant waterhemp. “Where we’ve grown winter rye as a cover crop, you can see that there’s hardly any weeds,” Smith says. The rye acts as mulch, reducing erosion and suppressing weeds.
Other stations address equally urgent challenges. At Arlington, scientists are studying beef-on-dairy calves and their nutrition. At Hancock, researchers test nitrogen-fixing corn hybrids that could one day reduce fertilizer use.
For Wisconsin farmers like Charles Hammer, these partnerships are invaluable. “To have a group like this, people that are very forward, always looking in the future, is very valuable,” Hammer says.
“UW faculty are charged with solving the next generation’s problems,” Peters says. “All the producers in the state of Wisconsin, regardless of agricultural commodity, rely on UW-Madison for information to help them succeed."
Photo Credit: gettyimages-tlillico
Categories: Wisconsin, Education