WI Film Festival: "Farming and the Land" series

Wisconsin Film Festival
April 2-5, 2009
Madison, WI

Sub-series:
"The Cream and the Crop: Farming and the Land on Film"

• Cheese Wars (24 min. + Q&A)
  
• Earth Days (100 min. + Q&A)
  
• The Farmhouse (8 min.)
  
• Food Inc. (93 min.)
  
• The Greening of Southie (73 min. + Q&A)
  
• Tractors! International Harvester-sponsored films of the WI Historical Society (56 min.)
  
• Ladies of the Land (29 min. + Q&A)
  
• Lie of the Land (75 min.)
  
• Michael Schmidt: Organic Hero or Bioterrorist? (45 min. + Q&A)
  
• Milk in the Land: Ballad of an American Drink (75 min.)
  
• Rare Chicken Rescue (26 min. + Q&A)
  

Wisconsin: Latest ag stats

The latest USDA Census of Agriculture was just released.

Wisconsin statistics:

• # of farms in 2007: 78,463 (#9 in U.S.A.)


• # of farms in 2002: 77,131


• # of acres in farms 2007: 15,190,804


• # of acres in farms 2002: 15,741,552


• Average # of acres per farm 2007: 194


• Average # of acres per farm 2002: 204


• Commodities raised and delivered under production contracts (vegetables, melons and potatoes) - 527 farms (#2 in USA)

Organic agriculture:

• 1,443 farms (#2 in USA)


• 147,120 acres (#4 in USA)


• $80,630,000 product sold (#4 in USA)

North American Industry Classification System:

• Oilseed and grain farming: 13,508 farms


• Vegetable and melon farming: 1,645 farms


• Fruit and tree nut farming: 1,320 farms


• Greenhouse, nursery, and floriculture operation: 2,147 farms


• Other crop farming: 22,081 farms (#5 in USA)


• Beef cattle ranching and farming: 11,593 farms


• Cattle feedlots: 2,485


• Dairy cattle and milk production: 13,081 farms (#1 in USA)


• Hog and pig farming: 989 farms


• Poultry and egg production: 2,297 farms


• Sheep and goat farming: 1,501 farms


• Animal aquaculture or other animal production: 5,816 farms - including 828 farms with colonies of bees

Specific crops:

• Asparagus - 244 acres (#6 in USA)


• Green lima beans - 3,435 acres (#3 in USA)


• Snap beans - 70,885 acres (#1 in USA)


• Beets - 2,784 acres (#1 in USA)


• Head cabbage - 5,990 acres (#6 in USA)


• Carrots - 3,988 acres (#4 in USA)


• Cucumbers and pickles - 6,084 acres (#8 in USA)


• Ginseng - 554 acres (#1 in USA)


• Peas, Chinese (sugar and snow) - 69 acres (#5 in USA)


• Green peas (excluding Southern) - 37,405 acres (#3 in USA)


• Potatoes - 63,933 acres (#4 in USA)


• Pumpkins - 3,600 acres (#8 in USA)


• Winter squash 823 acres (#8 in USA)


• Sweet corn - 91,218 acres (#3 in USA)


• Corn for grain - 437,174,706 bushels


• Corn for silage or greenchop - 11,645,140 tons (#2 in USA)


• Mint for oil, All (pounds) - 325,782 (#5 in USA)


• Oats for grain - 11,122,339 bushels


• Soybeans for beans - 54,701,222 bushels


• Sunflower seed - 4,449,621 pounds


• Apples - 6,406 acres (#7 in USA)


• Cherries - 2,567 acres (#3 in USA)


• Cranberries - 18,696 acres (#1 in USA)


• Currants - 11 acres (#4 in USA)


• Raspberries - 286 acres (#9 in USA)


• Aquatic plants - 1,342,175 dollars in sales (#7 in USA)


• Flower seeds - 1,718,916 dollars in sales (#4 in USA)


• Greenhouse fruits and berries - 28,927 dollars in sales (#4 in USA)


• Mushrooms - 2,057,661 dollars in sales (#4 in USA)


• Maple syrup - 108,108 gallons produced (#4 in USA)


• Forage - land used for all hay and all haylage, grass silage, and greenchop (tons, dry equivalent) - 8,528,063 (#3 in USA)


• Alfalfa hay (tons, dry) - 3,673,619 (#6 in USA)


• All haylage, grass silage, and greenchop - 8,446,369 green tons (#1 in USA)


• Hay, haylage, grass silage, and greenchop - 8,528,063 dry tons (#4 in USA)


• Haylage or greenchop from alfalfa or alfalfa mixtures (tons, green) - 7,931,573 (#1 in USA)


• Honey - 4,167,522 pounds collected

Inputs:

• Manure - 2,011,176 acres treated


• Commercial fertilizer, lime, and soil conditioners - 6,988,477 acres treated


• Chemicals to control weeds, grass, or brush - 5,227,166 acres treated


• Chemicals to control insects - 2,125,800 acres treated


• Chemicals to control diseases in crops and orchards - 251,421 acres treated


• Chemicals to control nematodes - 128,798 acres treated


• Chemicals to control growth, thin fruit, ripen, or defoliate - 67,308 acres treated

Top Wisconsin vegetable growers

Top Wisconsin vegetable growers
21st Annual American Vegetable Grower Top 100
October 2008

Rank among Northern growers (acreage):

#2 Hartung Brothers - snap beans, sweet corn, cucumbers, beets, carrots, peas, lima beans
#3 Paramount Farms - potatoes, sweet corn, beans, peas
#5 Heartland Farms - potatoes, sweet corn, beans, peas
#12 Borzynski Farms - cabbage, sweet corn, peas, peppers
#14 Wysocki Produce Farm - potatoes, beans, peas, sweet corn, pickles
#15 Bula Gieringer Farms - potatoes, sweet corn, peas, beans
#18 Weekly Farms - potatoes, beans, sweet corn, peas
#19 Gary Bula Farms - potatoes, snap beans, peas, sweet corn
#21 Sowinski Farms - potatoes, beans, peas
#23 Worzella & Sons - potatoes, sweet corn, beans

Agriculture + state laws

Hein Online - Subject Compilations of State Laws
A directory of 18,000+ articles, books, government documents, court opinions & websites that compare state laws on hundreds of subjects.

Subjects include:

• Agricultural Cooperatives
• Agricultural Districts
• Agriculture
• Biotechnology
• Corporate Farming
• Environmental Protection
• Farm Machinery
• Farm Products
• Farmland
• Farms and Farming
• Flowers
• Food
• Grain Dealers
• Insects
• Land Use
• Organic Farming and Food
  
• Pesticides
• Plants
• Right to Farm
• Scientific Research
• Viruses
• Wetlands
• Wildlife

Wisconsin State Statutes
There's also a Subject Matter Index for the Wisconsin Statutes. Topics of interest include:

• Agricultural societies
• Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection Dept.
• Agriculture and farming
• Animals
  
• Cranberries
• Endangered species
  
• Fertilizer
• Fish and game
  
• Food regulation
  
• Forest croplands
  
• Forests, logging and trees
  
• Groundwater protection
• Insect pests
• Irrigation
• Lyme disease
• Managed forest lands
• National Forests
• National Parkways
• Natural Resources Department
• Nurseries
• Pesticides
• Plants and plant industry
• Pollution
• Rural planning
• Soil
• Soil and water conservation
• State Geologist
  
• Statistics
  
• Weeds