Wisconsin dairy producers are increasingly adopting a practice that makes economic and environmental sense: They plant oats in early to mid-August and either allow cattle to graze them through late November or harvest the crop in early November for later use.

USDA scientists have found that a natural seed coating can protect alfalfa against some soilborne diseases.

Corn earworms, also known as cotton bollworms, migrate at night, making them notoriously hard to track. Farmers worried about controlling infestations have to make educated guesses about the pest's movements, based on reports from other areas and past experience. Guessing wrong can be expensive: The pest costs cotton producers an estimated $200 million a year.

By sending algae into space, a USDA scientist and his cooperators will be able to study some of the key mechanisms that control plant growth and photosynthesis.

Carefully staged “prescribed fire” can reset a rangeland’s biological clock, awaken dormant plants, and breathe new life and diversity into an ecosystem. When fire rolls over a rangeland, it gives perennial sod-forming grasses, which are good sources of forage for livestock, a better chance to take hold.