Climate Change and Cows: Using Computer Modeling to Understand How a Global Crisis Can Hit Close to Home

media release: Dane County farmers are used to dealing with the elements—from droughts and flooding, to heat waves and cold spells. You just gotta put your head down and get through it. (And maybe complain a little bit with your neighbors, of course.)

But what happens when the weather doesn’t snap back? What is the result of increasing and sustained temperatures on Wisconsin’s dairy herds, a vital component of our state—and local—ag economy?

On Monday, February 19, at 6:30 p.m. at Mount Horeb’s downtown Driftless Historium (100 S 2nd St), Dr. Warren Porter will present “Climate Change and Cows: Using Computer Modeling to Understand How a Global Crisis Can Hit Close to Home.”

Join us as we learn how climate change is affecting milk production in Wisconsin and around the world. Dr. Porter will share the groundbreaking research and development being undertaken by he and his colleagues at the University of Wisconsin Madison to study this new and existential challenge. We’ll hear about the new, Disney-style, 3D animal modeling software, Niche Mapper, that uses specific environmental information via geographic coordinates and weather data to study any animal (in this case, any size, color or breed of milk-producing cow), in any environment on earth—the result of a 30-year collaboration between a diverse group of university departments: Mechanical Engineering, Engineering Physics, Integrative Biology and Art.

Dr. Porter may technically have grown up in DeKalb, Illinois (where he learned to detassel corn and play the tuba), but he was born two blocks from where he works on the UW campus in Madison. He spent part of his summers on the family farm between Evansville and Edgerton and attended the University of Wisconsin as an undergraduate where he played tuba in the marching band. He received a master’s degree and a doctorate from UCLA before returning to Madison to teach and pursue his interdisciplinary research. He is currently emeritus professor of integrative biology and the Ardath and Robert Rodale Professor of Environmental Toxicology.

This presentation is a Badger Talks program, an initiative of the University of Wisconsin. Via virtual and in-person presentations and events led by UW’s world-class faculty, staff and graduate students, Wisconsin residents are introduced to the latest discoveries and research and engaged with topics they care about. Learn more at badgertalks.wisc.edu.

Registration is not required to attend this free event. For more information, call 608-437-6486 or email mthorebahs@gmail.com.