DSWR field experience at UW-Platteville enhances students’ studies in Ag-Water Nexus program
September 10, 2026
As a hydrology major at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, one of Shelby Hawkins’ career goals is to connect farmers with regenerative farming principles and potential incentives for implementing them.
So, spending a day at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville’s Pioneer Farm research dairy couldn’t have provided a better learning environment.
The visit this spring by Hawkins and other students from around Wisconsin was part of a course called Ag-Water Nexus Field Experience. Research in the Dairy Soil & Water Regeneration (DSWR) project was front and center.
“Understanding agricultural processes, farmer perspectives and current research in agricultural impacts on water and soil are all aspects that I learned about at Pioneer Farm,” Hawkins said. “The research regarding runoff from fields of different management approaches was what interested me the most.”
As part of DSWR, researchers at the farm are evaluating the impacts of two dairy-focused crop production systems on soil health, water quality, carbon storage and crop yield. One of the systems is a soil health management system that incorporates a novel manure product and cover crops. The other is a conventional system that uses liquid dairy manure and no cover crops.
The research is being conducted in eight replicated catchments, with one of two treatments randomly assigned to each catchment.
The students’ day included a classroom presentation about DSWR and then a tour of different stations in the project’s field plots. UW-Platteville senior scientist Dr. Dennis Busch, principle investigator for DSWR at the site, presented information related to surface-water quality; instrumental technologist Tristan Martins explained methods used to evaluate surface water and water moving through the soil; and agroecology research specialist Will Keast talked to students about soil health metrics and data.
“My hope is that the students took away from this experience that farming systems are complex and dynamic,” Busch said. “They should understand that farm management needs to be adaptive and able to adjust to changing conditions, and they should recognize that how we manage our lands can have a big impact on water quality and soil health.”
The Ag-Water Nexus Field Experience along with a related seminar course are part of a multi-campus collaboration in Wisconsin.
“By linking agricultural practices with water systems through hands-on, real-world learning, the Ag-Water Nexus program strengthens our commitment to educating future leaders who can address essential environmental and economic challenges in agriculture,” said Dr. Joseph Sanford, assistant professor of agriculture and biological systems engineering at UW-Platteville who coordinates Platteville’s participation.
Over the course of the three-day field experience, students visited farms and agricultural cooperatives, participated in hands-on labs, and had conversations with researchers, conservationists and farmers.
The DSWR research was of particular interest to Hawkins.
“I would absolutely love to take more time to observe the data and results from this,” she said.
Photo: Tristan Martins, an instrumental technologist at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, talks to university students about how researchers at the college’s Pioneer Farm are evaluating surface water runoff and quality in an edge-of-field catchment as part of DSWR.