Matthew Digman

Education:

• Ph.D. University of Wisconsin 2009;
• M.S. University of Wisconsin 2006;
• B.S. Milwaukee School of Engineering 2003.

Research Interests:

Akins, M. and M. Digman. Development of a Wax-based Spray-on Silage Cover. Sponsored by University of Wisconsin Consortium for Extension and Research in Agriculture and Natural Resources.

Digman, M. The Impact of Tedding on the Economic Production of Alfalfa Silage. Sponsored by National Alfalfa and Forage Alliance.

Digman, M. The utility of a near-infrared reflectance spectrometer to predict composition of Wisconsin manures. Sponsored by John Deere GmbH & Co. KG.

Publications:

Brink, G.E., Digman, M.F. and R.E. Muck. 2014. Field drying rate differences among three cool-season grasses. Forage and Grazinglands, 12(1).

Digman, M.F., Runge, T.M., Shinners, K.J. and R.D. Hatfield. 2013. Wet fractionation for improved utilization of alfalfa leaves. Biological Engineering, 6(1):29-42.

Vadas, P.A. and M.F. Digman. 2013. Production costs of potential corn stover harvest and storage systems. Biomass and Bioenergy, 54:133-139.

Weimer, P.J. and M.F. Digman. 2013. Fermentation of alfalfa wet-fractionation liquids to volatile fatty acids by Streptococcus bovis and Megasphaera elsdenii. Bioresource Technology, 142:88-94.

Digman, M.F., Conley , S.P. and J.G. Lauer. 2012. Evaluation of a Microwave Resonator for Predicting Grain Moisture Independent of Bulk Density. Applied engineering in agriculture, 28(4):611-617.

Shinners, T.J., Digman, M.F. and J.C. Panuska. 2012. Overlap loss of manually and automatically guided mowers. Applied engineering in agriculture, 28(1):5-8.

Digman, M.F., Shinners, K.J. and M.E. Boettcher. 2012. Crop Mergers: Management of soil contamination and leaf-loss in alfalfa. Transactions of the ASABE, 29(2):179-185.

Digman, M.F., Dien, B.S. and R.D. Hatfield. 2012. On-farm acidification and anaerobic storage for preservation and improved conversion of switchgrass into ethanol. Biological Engineering, 5(1):47-58.

Digman, M.F., Undersander, D.J., Shinners K.J. and C. Saxe. 2011. Best practices to hasten field drying of grasses and alfalfa. University of Wisconsin Extension, A3927.

Shinners, K.J., Digman, M.F. and T.M. Runge. 2011. Biomass logistics - harvest and storage. In Sustainable production of fuels, chemicals, and fibers from forest biomass. Zhu, J.Y., Zhang, X. and X. Pan, eds. ACS Symposium Series, 1067:65-86.

Digman, M.F., Shinners, K.J., Casler, M.D., Dien, B.S., Hatfield, R.D., Jung, H.G., Muck, R.E. and P.J. Weimer. 2010. Optimizing On-farm Pretreatment of Perennial Grasses for Fuel Ethanol Production. Bioresource Technology, 101:5305-5314.

Digman, M.F., Shinners, K.J., Muck, R.E. and B.S. Dien. 2010. Pilot-scale on-farm pretreatment of perennial grasses with dilute acid and alkali for fuel ethanol production. Transactions of the ASABE, 53(3):1007-1014.

Digman, M.F., Shinners, K.J., Muck, R.E. and B.S. Dien. 2010. Full-scale on-farm pretreatment of perennial grasses with dilute acid for fuel ethanol production. BioEnergy Research, 3(4):335-341.

Digman, M.F. and K.J. Shinners. 2009. Real-time moisture measurement on a forage harvester using near infrared reflectance spectroscopy. Transactions of the ASABE, 51(5):1801-1810.

Casler, M.D., Heaton, E., Shinners, K.J., Jung, H.G., Weimer, P.J., Liebig, M.A., Mitchell, R.B. and M.F. Digman. 2009. Grasses and legumes for cellulosic bioenergy. In Grassland: Quietness and Strength for a New American Agriculture. Wedin, W.F. and S.L. Fales, eds. ASA-CSSS-SSSA, 205-219.

Shinners, K.J., Adsit, G.S., Binversie, B.N., Digman, M.F., Muck, R.E. and P.J. Weimer. 2007. Single-pass, split-stream harvest of corn grain and stover. Transactions of the ASABE, 50(2):355-363.

Shinners, K.J., Herzmann, M.E., Binversie, B.N. and M.F. Digman. 2007. Harvest fractionation of alfalfa. Transactions of the ASABE, 50(3):713-718.

Biography:

In 2016 Matthew brought his experience in agricultural equipment design and testing to UW-River Falls. His equipment design experience comes from his time spent at the USDA Dairy Forage Research Center, followed by several years with Kuhn North America. As an adjunct faculty member at UW-Madison he redesigned a core course in instrumentation and control, and mentored both undergraduate and graduate students on various applied research projects. Matt grew up on a Wisconsin family farm and earned his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the Milwaukee School of Engineering and his M.S. and PhD. in Biological Systems Engineering from UW-Madison.