I expected to start my new role as Cranberry Outreach Specialist traveling across the state, visiting you and your marshes, and learning side by side from you in your pickup cabs. The world threw us a curveball—so I’ll have to introduce myself on paper for now and look forward to the marsh visits as soon as they’re safe.

So, hello! I’m Allison Jonjak. I grew up on Jonjak Cranberry Farm (established 1939) in Sawyer County, and loved everything about it, from pulling maples to sweeping for bugs, to testing out herbicide protocols, and even frost watches. (I suspect my dad of only waking me up for the few fun ones a year, I know it’s a different story when you’re up every night.)  I decided I liked problem solving so I went to the University of Minnesota for ag engineering, and then got my master’s at the University of Nebraska, again for ag engineering, specializing in soil pH.

My work in grad school, and in my next job at Family Farms Group, focused on corn, beans, milo, cotton, wheat, and rice. Occasionally I’d get to work with tomatoes, melons, bell peppers, or faba beans, and I love all the farmers I got to work with—and the only thing that could have persuaded me to go elsewhere was the opportunity to get back into cranberry marshes again. I’m so glad to be back in Wisconsin with you all.

With my row crop farmers, we focused on sound agronomy: growing the best crop possible within the budget. We set up variable rate fertilizer and variable rate seeding prescriptions tailored to yield potential. We held trainings focused on scouting, crop physiology, chemical selection, soil properties, and other topics of daily importance to agronomists. A lot of people are naturally drawn to competition about high yield. I founded a contest to get growers excited to compare yield per dollar spent, so we compared actual seed and input costs with normalized trip costs. We learned new things from this every year, and I hope we can have similar discussions in cranberries.

When I can travel, I would love to visit your marsh. Until then, allison.jonjak@wisc.edu and 612.276.2872 are the best ways to reach me. 

This article was posted in Cranberry and tagged CCMJ, Cranberries.