Grazing Network Thriving in Northwest Wisconsin

The latest news from the Grassland 2.0 team on grassland-based agriculture and sustainable agriculture.

Tag: grass-fed

Grazing Network Thriving in Northwest Wisconsin

When Paul Daigle, an organizer in Grassland 2.0’s Cloverbelt Learning Hub and longtime grazing consultant, pulled into the parking lot at Shell Lake Community Center, it was overflowing. And he was 20 minutes early. Daigle drove to the northwest reaches of the state to attend the annual Fall Grazing Conference put on by Northwest Wisconsin […]

Pastures as Potential Pollinator Habitat

Story by Skye Bruce When you think of pastures, what do you see in your mind’s eye? Perhaps a field of grasses, speckled with cows, and maybe some clover? As a graduate student in Entomology at UW-Madison, I’m interested in whether these grazed landscapes contain habitat for beneficial insects, and how grazing management methods affect […]

Looking for the perfect burger? Look for local grass-fed

Picture of a juicy burger

If there is one thing that can be widely agreed upon – it’s that burgers are loved. In fact, market research firm Datassentials notes that burgers are the 10th most loved food in the US across demographic segments out of more than 3,000 items. For folks looking for the perfect all-beef burger, grass-fed is a delicious, healthy option that provides an array of benefits to the environment and the local economy.

Back to his grassroots: Jacob Marty returns to family land with new vision for agriculture

As a dairy farm kid from southwest Wisconsin, Jacob Marty had no desire to return to his family’s farm. He was set on attending UW-Stevens Point and pursuing a career in conservation. Studying wildlife ecology pointed him in an unexpected direction, however: back to the farm.

“I got interested in how we can harmonize food production while also providing habitat for wildlife,” says Jacob. “That led me down this road.”

Watch Jacob Marty share why he had a change of heart, all while fending off an overzealous ram!

Cattle and Brookies: Making Modern Agriculture and Trout Habitat in Wisconsin

Person trout fishing in a stream

Some 10,000 years ago, glaciers from the last Ice Age were retreating from the Upper Midwest. While much of Wisconsin was scraped into the rolling landscape that is representative of much of the state, a roughly 24,000 square mile piece of land at the intersection of Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa, was left untouched by continental glaciers. Broad ridge tops with shallow soil, river-formed valleys, and steep, craggy ravines make the Driftless area a geological anomaly. For millennia, this was a fertile Brook Trout habitat but in an evolutionary blink of an eye, these waters became threatened by modern agriculture. Across this region of sandstone and dolomitic limestone bedrock, there is more than 6,000 miles of trout water, with about 1300 miles of public access. But the health of these waters continue to compete with agriculture to survive. 

New GrassCast podcast shares cutting edge research linking animal and human health

How does the way we raise our agriculture impact our health as humans? That is the critical question surrounding Stephan van Vliet’s research. Stephan is a nutrition scientists and metabolomics experts at the Center for Human Nutrition Studies at Utah State University and in the fall of last year Stephan spoke to the Grassland 2.0 team as part of the teams fall Digital Dialogue Series.

Six ways to incorporate grass-fed meat and dairy this holiday season

December abounds with cultural and religious holidays. There’s Christmas and Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Rohatsu, and the winter solstice, to name a few. It’s a time for family gatherings, celebrations, reflection – and sharing delicious meals with those we hold dear.