Bee Business Beginning to Boom
Janesville, Wis. — There’s a serious buzz surrounding bees these days, and at least one Wisconsin retailer is seeking to build some business out of it. Blain’s Farm and Fleet, based in this city about 60 miles southwest of Milwaukee, is continuing to expand its bee business, selling the critters themselves as well as all the equipment needed to keep them happy and healthy. The strategy is born from the movement nationally toward...
‘Potion’ Bogs Down Cranberry Pest
Central Wisconsin’s picturesque cranberry country has become a testing ground for a new approach to pest control: birth control for bugs. Scientists are experimenting with a fake love potion that makes it nearly impossible for male moths to find females during early summer mating season. The research, now in its fourth season, aims to reduce insecticide use in cranberry bogs. The technique, called mating disruption, has proved...
Lower Prices For Milk Hit Farmers Hard
Milwaukee — Charlie Jones got into dairy farming four years ago when the industry was on the mend after one of the worst downturns in recent history. Now he’s getting a taste for what it’s like when milk prices plummet and profits become scarce. Jones milks 140 cows. He and thousands of other Wisconsin farmers recently enjoyed high milk prices, only to see them drop more than 30 percent this year. “I would say we are right at the...
