skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Wednesday, April 30, 2025

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Trump marks first 100 days in office in campaign mode, focused on grudges and grievances; Maine's Rep. Pingree focuses on farm resilience as USDA cuts funding; AZ protesters plan May Day rally against Trump administration; Proposed Medicaid cuts could threaten GA families' health, stability.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Trump marks first 100 days of his second term. GOP leaders praise the administration's immigration agenda, and small businesses worry about the impacts of tariffs as 90-day pause ends.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Migration to rural America increased for the fourth year, technological gaps handicap rural hospitals and erode patient care, and doctors are needed to keep the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians healthy and align with spiritual principles.

Southwest WI farmer unfazed by weather due to conservation practices

play audio
Play

Thursday, December 26, 2024   

A diverse group of Southwest Wisconsin farmers are using federally funded conservation programs to help improve their farms' soil health and resiliency to extreme weather, from droughts to floods.

Joe Stapleton, farmer-leader for the Iowa County Uplands Watershed Group and owner of Stapleton Farms, a 535-acre mixed crop and livestock farm in Spring Green, said implementing practices like no-till and cover crops have made a significant difference in his crop outcomes.

"When you get the droughts, the dry times, they don't to seem to be as serious," Stapleton explained. "Because land that isn't tilled holds more water and '23 was a really dry year, and we had respectable crops."

A fourth-generation farmer, Stapleton pointed out the outcomes are very different from previous droughts. Erosion is also a big issue in hilly Southwestern Wisconsin, where soil is especially susceptible to it. Stapleton acknowledged while erosion cannot completely be prevented, it can be minimized. Conservation practices are allowing him, and other farmers, to do that while maximizing their efforts.

The Uplands Watershed Group was created by a group of farmers in the Dodgeville-Spring Green area. The group focuses on priorities like protecting soil and nutrients lost through polluted farm runoff, increasing water filtration into the soil, keeping water on farmland and decreasing the damage costs associated with heavy rainfalls. Stapleton added when there's too much rainfall -- as was the case this year -- the effects are also not as damaging.

"A lot of water got into the ground on these dry ridges and we produced more crops, whereas in a lot of years it would kind of drown them out, or it would run off," Stapleton outlined. "With no-till, it actually gets in the ground better, and I've never had better corn."

He learned his beans, on the other hand, do better in dryer seasons. However, he is finding that any year, no matter the weather, is still a good year for crops on Stapleton Farms because of the conservation practices he is implementing.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
The Buffalo Soldiers were the first Black professional soldiers in a peacetime army. The recruits came from varied backgrounds, including former slaves and veterans from service in the Civil War. The museum was founded in 2001. (serhiibobyk/Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

The Buffalo Soldiers National Museum in Houston is one of many historic and cultural institutions across the nation to lose access to federal funding…


Social Issues

play sound

New national rankings out this week show South Dakota jumped a few spots higher in teacher pay for each state. However, there are questions about …

Social Issues

play sound

A new report warned mass deportations of undocumented immigrants in Washington would lead to labor shortages and make many goods and services more exp…


Wyoming teachers, firefighters and postal workers are some of the groups expected at the May Day rally Thursday in Casper. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

Wyoming labor unions will gather Thursday in Casper in honor of May Day, a holiday celebrated in 80 countries commemorating the labor movement and …

Social Issues

play sound

As Colorado lawmakers grapple with $1.2 billion in budget cuts, child nutrition advocates are turning to voters to protect funding for the state's …

The U.S. Secretary of Agriculture announced in March the Food Safety and Inspection Service will extend waivers allowing pork and poultry producers to process meat at a faster pace than the previous time limits prescribed. (Photo courtesy Sentient)

Social Issues

play sound

By Whitney Curry Wimbish for Sentient.Broadcast version by Mike Moen for Minnesota News Connection reporting for the Sentient-Public News Service Coll…

Environment

play sound

A pair of new reports shows Ohio communities are quietly leading the way on clean energy, from urban centers to small towns, with solar power playing …

Environment

play sound

By Seth Millstein for Sentient.Broadcast version by Suzanne Potter for California News Service reporting for the Sentient-Public News Service Collabor…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021