News

Dairy Revitalization Plan discussed by farmers

Dairy farmers from northcentral Wisconsin discussed a possible plan for future milk pricing. 

Local chapter members of Wisconsin Farmers Union and Wisconsin Farm Bureau are talking about what’s called the Dairy Revitalization Plan, a growth management concept revised by University of Wisconsin dairy economists Mark Stephenson and Chuck Nicholson. This concept would require farms that expand past predetermined limits to pay a market access fee that would be paid to the other farmers. 

Bobbi Wilson with Wisconsin Farmers Union says, “Because we’ve had this opportunity to come together and compromise and talk to each other, listen to each other, and figure out what’s going to benefit everybody, we have this new, kind of fully-hatched plan that we think can really make a huge difference.”

Joe Bragger is from Farm Bureau’s District 4 in Western Wisconsin. He tells Brownfield, “It could potentially help with the loss of farms, cut government subsidies, have minimal impact on those key indicators that we looked at, trade and domestic use, but provide a lot more stability for farmers while still allowing for that next generation to come on the farm.”

And Wilson says, “If we let another farm bill come and go without making serious changes to dairy policy, it’s going to be the detriment to a lot of dairy farmers.”

Brownfield interviewed Bragger and Wilson during a Dairy Together informational meeting Wednesday in Abbotsford, Wisconsin. Additional meetings are scheduled for Cashton, Wisconsin Thursday and Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin on Friday.