During the 2025 growing season, members of the agriculture community in Wisconsin will once again have access to a weekly climate outlook. The Wisconsin Ag Climate Outlook (WACO) includes things like historical and current weather patterns, soil moisture, precipitation, and crop progress. Combining data from national and local sources, including the National Weather Service, regional climate centers, Wisconet, USDA, and the U.S. Drought Monitor, WACO provides Wisconsin-specific climate information tailored to the agricultural community. The report helps farmers be more prepared and adapt their plans to accommodate anticipated changes.
WACO, which debuted during the 2024 growing season, is partly a result of 2023 drought conditions. During that year, Natasha Paris, a UW–Madison Extension regional crops educator who works in Adams, Green Lake, Marquette, and Waushara counties, received a lot of questions from farmers about growing conditions. “Because of that, I started posting climate maps here and there,” said Paris. She quickly realized there was interest in the information.
Paris tapped into a larger network of people with similar goals, each having pieces of the overall picture. “We had a lot of meetings last year to bring everybody in the climate space together to have conversations,” said Paris. Now, the group works together to provide information in a way that is most helpful to farmers.
Josh Bendorf, an ag climatologist with the USDA Midwest Climate Hub, was part of the planning team. He says the weekly report provides ag advisors, conservation staff, and farmers with relevant, up-to-date Wisconsin climate information and links that information to impacts on Wisconsin agriculture. “The goal is to help farmers make well-informed decisions based on the current and forecasted conditions in their area,” said Bendorf.
Contributors:
Josh Bendorf, Ag Climatologist, Midwest Climate Hub, USDA
Kristin Foehringer, NRCS State Working Lands Climate Smart Specialist
Bridgette Mason, Assistant State Climatologist, UW–Madison State Climatology Office, Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies
Natasha Paris, Regional Crops Educator (Adams, Green Lake, Marquette, Waushara Counties), UW–Madison Division of Extension
Steve Vavrus, State Climatologist, UW–Madison Division of Extension and Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies
State Climatologist Steve Vavrus describes the outlook as an assessment of current and recent weather and crop conditions combined with a weather forecast for the next week and a look at the entire season. Bringing together that information helps those with agricultural interests better prepare. “Farmers have long been able to access a lot of weather and crop information, but the major benefit of WACO is that it provides ‘one-stop shopping’ for farmers, so they can quickly digest pertinent information for their operations without having to dig around for it,” said Vavrus.
This past growing season, Paris and her Extension colleagues added an essential piece to the report by taking all of the data and providing weekly agronomic recommendations. “Taking the data that one step further is really helpful and makes the information much more usable and actionable for farmers,” said Bendorf. The group hopes that WACO can provide weekly guidance for on-farm decisions such as the timing of planting and harvest, in-season management decisions (i.e., pests, nutrients, water, etc.), and upcoming weather hazards to be aware of.
In addition to posting the report online, WACO contributors joined the Badger Crop Connect webinar series to give a weekly overview to about 100 attendees. “Being part of the Badger Crop Connect webinars has been a great way to get the information to the ag community and be available to discuss the information,” said Bendorf.
You can find the Wisconsin Ag Climate Outlook online. Visit the Badger Crop Connect website to view past or register for upcoming webinars.
About Badger Crop Connect
The Badger Crop Connect webinar series is hosted by the Extension Crops and Soils Program. This bi-weekly series runs during the growing season, offering farmers, agronomists, and crop consultants timely updates on crop and soil conditions, agronomic considerations related to weather and climate, research-backed resources, and expert advice. The program aims to keep growers informed about the numerous factors impacting their crop season.
About the Midwest Climate Hub
The mission of the Midwest Climate Hub is to develop science-based, region-specific information and technologies alongside USDA agencies and partners and deliver these products to agricultural and natural resource managers that enable climate-informed decision-making. The Hub aims to provide information that will help producers cope with climate change through linkages of research, education, and extension partnerships. Encompassing Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Indiana, and Illinois, this region represents one of the most intense areas of agricultural production in the world with a wide array of products.
About the Wisconsin State Climatology Office
The Wisconsin State Climatology Office is housed within the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies Center for Climatic Research, the Division of Extension, and the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at UW–Madison. It collects, analyzes, and shares climate information with our communities while leading the way in climate science education and research. Funding has been provided by the Wisconsin Rural Partnerships Institute, which is part of the Institute for Rural Partnerships and supported by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
About Wisconet
Wisconet is a growing statewide network of weather and soil monitoring stations designed to provide the public with high quality data at high spatial and temporal resolutions. Wisconet plans to deploy 80 stations, with at least one in every Wisconsin county. Each station provides more than one dozen measurements every five minutes, including air and soil temperature, soil moisture, relative humidity, barometric pressure, wind speed and direction, liquid precipitation, solar radiation, and leaf wetness.
The Wisconet team is affiliated with the UW-Madison Department of Plant and Agroecosystem Sciences and the Wisconsin Energy Institute (WEI). Funding has been provided by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) and the Wisconsin Rural Partnerships Institute.
