Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 37. Sunrise is 6:51 and sunset 5:26 for 10h 35m 40s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 38.4% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Community Development Authority meets at 5:30 PM.

On this day in 1862, Confederates commanded by Brig. Gen. John B. Floyd attack General Ulysses S. Grant’s Union forces besieging Fort Donelson in Tennessee. Unable to break the fort’s encirclement, the Confederates surrender the following day.

Madeline Heim reports Wisconsin lost 10% of farms, 30% of dairies in 5 years, U.S. agriculture census shows:

Wisconsin lost nearly 10% of farms, 30% of dairies since 2017

Wisconsin had 58,521 farms in 2022, census data show, representing a nearly 10% loss since 2017.

Dairy farms, long the state’s calling card, continued to plummet. There were 6,216 dairy farms in Wisconsin in 2022, down from just above 9,000 in 2017. Further, state data show the number has dropped more since the census data was recorded. As of Feb. 1, Wisconsin had 5,644 milk cow herds.

As the number of farms decrease, existing ones are getting bigger. The average Wisconsin farm in 2022 was 236 acres, the largest it’s been in more than two decades. And it’s not just acreage. Herd sizes are getting larger as well. The number of milk cows in the state declined less than 2% since 2017, despite the drop in dairy farms.

Private US moon lander launched into space:

 Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 42. Sunrise is 7:26 and sunset 5:50 for 10h 24m 50s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 99.4% of its visible disk illuminated.

  On this day in 1969, the first-ever computer-to-computer link is established on ARPANET, the precursor to the Internet.

 Wisconsin Life | Dairy Farm Life:

When Rosario Ibarra arrived from Mexico for her internship, she had never seen a Holstein cow. Ibarra now runs one of Manitowoc County’s largest dairy farms. It’s a tireless job that has become a lifestyle.

365 Marathons In 365 Days:

Would you run a marathon? Maybe you’ve run a few? What about running a marathon every single day? If that sounds completely crazy, well — we would agree. But Gary McKee did just that – every day of 2022. Gary ran a marathon each day for an entire year, but his steps were driven by more than just personal drive. Every mile was to raise funds for Macmillan Cancer Support. As days turned into weeks, his ambition transformed into a town-wide movement. With New Year’s Eve as the grand finale, the community came together like never before with hundreds of supporters rallying to celebrate with him at the finish line. The result? A united community, countless inspired morning runners, and a staggering £1 million raised.