News

University of Minnesota Morris and the West Central Research and Outreach Center recognized for the Morris Model, a county-wide partnership to produce energy locally and to eliminate the county's landfill waste by 2030.

Grow with KARE is a short news feature that showcases tips and highlights of horticulture for Minnesota. The hosts, Laura Betker and Bobby Jensen, share information on the Top Ten annuals from the WCROC each winter. 

This fund will benefit the WCROC in Morris, MN. Specifically, it will allow the center to hire summer interns and offer outreach programs to ag producers in the area. The fund is created by the friends and family of Harley Hanke, a beloved faculty member and member of the Morris community.

The Minnesota Pork Board recognizes Lee Johnston as this year’s Distinguished Service award recipient.

Pig farmers manage and operate finely-tuned farms that produce pigs consistently and efficiently. These farms are part of a coordinated industry which works smoothly until disaster strikes, then farmers and their supporting industries must “adjust on the fly” to maintain food production.  The disaster could be torrential rains and flooding, a blizzard with heavy snows, a tornado, a fire, a pandemic that closes packing plants or an outbreak of a Foreign Animal Disease (FAD). 

All across the state, MNat volunteers are engaged in helping to make Minnesota a better place through volunteer service.  The program allows volunteers to choose their own service projects in one of four areas: Stewardship, program support, education/interpretation, and citizen science. 

Recently, one of these volunteers was recognized for his 19 years of service by Point of Light Foundation. Read more to learn about Bruce Gravelle's experience as a Minnesota Master Naturalist.

In late October, the West Central Research and Outreach Center (WCROC) weather data collection modernized thanks to a new weather station provided by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA). The WCROC joined several other ROCs in partnering with the MDA to join and collect data for the Minnesota Ag Weather Network (MAWN). This project upgrades the ROCs’ current weather stations with technology that is standardized across the MDA’s network and provides current weather updates every 15 minutes.

U of M professor Neil Anderson’s team studies the triple-hitter crop, which provides food resources to pollinators throughout the growing season and creates sustainable oilseed and fiber products as a cash crop for Minnesota farmers.

Why should you donate to the WCROC during this year's Give to the Max Day?

For Yuzhi Li, her life’s work has been dedicated to understanding and improving the management methods of swine. Why did she go into this field? She loves pork.