Demo farms unveiled in Madison with purpose of testing conservation practices

MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) - Dane County Executive Joe Parisi unveiled the farms participating in a demonstration farm network on Tuesday.

The demo farms will be a place to research and test new conservation systems. Dane County has partnered with USDA for this $1 million, five-year initiative that will install monitoring stations at these farms. The monitoring stations will capture runoff information to determine the effectiveness of different conservation practices.

Demo farms will also offer tours, field days for farmers, agrobusiness and facilitate farmer to farmer learning.

Parisi announced the different farm locations at Sime Farm, which is one of three current demo farms. Parisi said Dane Co. is still looking for two more farm partners.

“We’re really proud of the farm families in Dane County for all the work that they do to be good stewards of the land,” Parisi said.

Dane Co. is also partnering with UW for research on the project. They will look at soil health and field water quality to see whether the new conservation practices are effective.

Click here to download the NBC15 News app or our NBC15 First Alert weather app.

Copyright 2023 WMTV. All rights reserved.