2025 MWCG Schedule

Schedule

Time	Activity
8 a.m.	Conference registration and check-in
8-8:50 a.m.	Breakfast and networking with exhibitors
8:50-9 a.m.	Welcome & opening remarks
9-10 a.m.	Plenary
10-10:20 a.m.	Break and network with exhibitors
10:20-11:20 a.m.	Plenary
11:20-11:55 a.m.	Peer learning and networking activity
Noon-1:20 p.m.	Lunch and network with exhibitors
1:20-2:20 p.m.	Breakout sessions
2:20-2:40 p.m.	Break and network with exhibitors
2:40-3:50 p.m.	Breakout sessions
4 p.m.	Social begins!

Farmer social immediately following the conference at Moosejaw Pizza & Dells Brewing Co. (110 Wisconsin Dells Pkwy S, Wisconsin Dells, WI 53965).

Grab a drink and continue conversations from the conference. Practical Farmers of Iowa will provide drink tickets.

Plenary: 9-10 a.m.

Ag Econ 536: Cover Crops

Kyle Nilsestuen farms with his wife, Leni, and two sons near Arcadia, Wisconsin, growing corn, soy, forages and wheat and tending their Red Angus cow-calf herd. In addition to working on his own farm, Kyle is an ag chemical inspector for the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, an LG seed dealer and does private agronomy consulting and custom baling. He also serves as president of the Trempealeau County Farm Bureau and a member of Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation’s Sustainability Committee.

Cover crops offer many benefits to a field by reducing weed pressure and soil erosion, breaking pest cycles and fixing nitrogen and other minerals. Examining profitability, however, requires a big-picture perspective and many of the benefits are hard to quantify. Kyle Nilsestuen has been working with his watershed’s cover crop group for eight years to examine the financial feasibility of cover crops in his area. He will share insights he’s gained through his own experience and from other local farmers about cover crop economics, including the importance of including livestock in the equation.

Plenary: 10:20-11:20 a.m.

Determining Which Small Grains To Grow in the Upper Midwest

Graham Adsit farms near East Troy, Wisconsin, where he grows hard and soft wheat, multiple types of corn, oats, millet, sorghum, barley, heritage small grains, soybeans, peas and buckwheat. He has also been operating a grain mill called Rooster Milling, which processes all types of grain to customer specification (cleaning, color sorting, milling, crushing, flaking and malting). The Adsits focus on no-till, strip-till, advanced cover crop systems, overwintering small grains and water quality monitoring to ensure long-term viability for everyone.

Are you looking to diversify your crop rotations but unsure which crops will work best on your farm? East Troy farmer Graham Adsit has tried many species and varieties over the past 26 years and has learned which crops offer greater opportunities in the Upper Midwest. He will share what he has seen as barriers to success for many farmers and offer tips for incorporating small grains that will bring resilience and long-term profit to your farm.

Breakout Sessions: 1:20-2:20 p.m.

Interseeding Covers Into Corn Silage: What We’ve Learned in Eastern Wisconsin

Barry Bubolz is a field coordinator with the Wisconsin USDA-NRCS Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Demonstration Farm Network. He works extensively with dairy and row crop farmers in northeast Wisconsin to adopt innovative cropping system, cover crop and manure management practices that improve water quality, as well as overall farm resiliency and profitability. Barry earned his soil science degree from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

Jamie Patton is the Wisconsin soil health coordinator with USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. She provides outreach and technical support about soil health-promoting practices to farmers, agency staff and community members across Wisconsin. Jamie earned her soil science degrees from Iowa State University and Oklahoma State University.

With almost a decade of experience interseeding cover crops into corn, Barry Bubolz and Jamie Patton will outline the strategies honed by the farmers in the USDA-NRCS Demonstration Farm Networks for successfully establishing and managing cover crops. Learn about what cover crop species have worked well, optimal timing for seeding and other tips for successfully minimizing weed pressure.

Finding Local Small-Grain Markets

Michael Dolan is the seventh generation of his family farming in southwest Wisconsin. He runs Seven Seeds Organic Farm alongside his brother, Frank Stroncek, wife Chloe, and parents Lea and Greg. Together, they keep chickens, turkeys, pigs and 100% grass-fed beef cattle that are rotationally raised. They also grow corn, soybeans, wheat, rye and alfalfa. Seven Seeds Organic Farm sells its small grains to Meadowlark Farm and Mill with livestock feed as a back-up option.

Rochelle and Evan Schnadt operate Heartland Craft Grains, a farmstead mill in Lodi, Wisconsin. Passionate about producing delicious grains raised through regenerative practices, the Schnadts grow a wide range of varieties chosen for their flavor and nutrition, including blue and polenta corn, ancient grains like spelt and einkorn and modern varieties of oats and wheat. By milling and marketing their own grains, Evan and Rochelle offer high-quality, locally grown flours and grain berries to people across Wisconsin.

When adding small grains into the rotation, it’s important to consider market options and availability for each new crop – and to have a Plan B if something goes wrong. In this session, Michael Dolan will share his story of finding a local small-grain market, meeting specifications for that market and having a back-up plan ready for when things go awry. Then, hear from Rochelle and Evan Schnadt about their farm and mill, Heartland Craft Grains, and how producing their own value-added products has helped them find more market opportunities.

Rethinking Rotations

Daniel Olson is a seventh-generation dairy farmer from Lena, Wisconsin. He is also the owner of Forage Innovations, a forage consulting business that works with over 800,000 cows in 26 states. He is a busy speaker and writer who enjoys developing innovative solutions to challenges in agriculture.

Between environmental concerns, nutrient management, land costs and ration costs, livestock producers face a bevy of challenges. Join Daniel Olson as he explains how, by rethinking cropping rotations, farmers can increase forage, decrease costs and address other difficulties to set themselves up for a successful future.

Breakout Sessions: 2:40-3:50 p.m.

Observations from the Field: Cover Crops’ Impact on Field Work Suitability

Josh Hiemstra operates Hiemstra Dairy Farm with his wife, children and father near Brandon, Wisconsin. The Hiemstras farm 790 acres, growing corn, soybeans, wheat, alfalfa and other forage mixes. In addition to milking 135 Holsteins, they also finish 150 head of Angus cross-bred beef cattle.

Kyle Nilsestuen farms with his wife, Leni, and two sons near Arcadia, Wisconsin, growing corn, soy, forages and wheat and tending their Red Angus cow-calf herd. In addition to working on his own farm, Kyle is an ag chemical inspector for the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, an LG seed dealer and does private agronomy consulting and custom baling. He also serves as president of the Trempealeau County Farm Bureau and a member of Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation’s Sustainability Committee.

Throughout 2024, farmers across parts of the Midwest who plant cover crops tracked the number of days each week they were able to do field work, or could have done so without compromising the integrity of their fields, as part of an observational study through Practical Farmers of Iowa’s Cooperators’ Program. In this session, farmers Josh and Kyle will share why they got involved, what the study entailed, how cover crops affected their field trafficability and what you can do to also get involved.

Steps to Success Growing Winter-Hardy Crops

In a region where winter brings temperatures well below freezing, growing crops through the winter can sound daunting. Fortunately, various varieties of small-grain crops are winter-hardy, able to survive the harsh, cold weather and then take off growing in the spring and summer. After years growing both fall- and spring-seeded small grains, Graham has found his passion lies with the overwintering varieties. Hear Graham’s insights on sourcing winter-hardy seed stock, tips for success with growing those crops and outlook on market opportunities for winter small grains.

Grazing Cover Crops for Great Gains

Scott Schultz and his family farm on 200 acres near Watertown, Wisconsin. Their practices include rotating corn, soybeans and wheat with diverse cover crop mixes – including rye, oats, vetch and red clover – between each cash crop. Scott raises 30 beef cows in his cow-calf operation that he grazes on cover crops. He also bales covers, like his clover, for feed.

With a background in beef cattle and cash cropping, Scott is seeing the benefits of rotationally grazing his cattle on cover crops. In just his first year of doing so, he saw significant rates of gain on calves. Scott is applying a flexible mindset to his farm in other ways, too. From grazing his diverse mix of covers, to baling it for winter, to using the newly planted alfalfa and grass boundaries surrounding his fields, come learn how Scott is managing his farm for adaptability and success.