News

Wisconsin legislators hold hearing on dairy crisis

Members of the Wisconsin Legislature are learning more about the difficulties on dairy farms.  Ag Committee Chairman Howard Marklein tells Brownfield the milk price problem remains, and many farmers are hanging on thanks to the equity in their land. “Our cropland values increased 2.3% in 2018 after increasing 9.5% in 2017.”

University of Wisconsin ag economist Paul Mitchell was one of four people to testify at a Senate Ag Committee hearing about the dairy crisis Tuesday.  Marklein says the dairy industry wants the state to keep investing in rural communities. “A lot of our cheese plants for example are still trying to hire people and are having a difficult time finding enough employees, so from the state’s standpoint, maybe one thing we may be able to do is, whenever we can, reinvesting in our rural communities to make them as attractive as possible.”

A second public hearing with the Ag Committee and the Ways and Means committee Tuesday took testimony about a proposed tax cut for individuals that make up to 100-thousand dollars a year or couples that make up to 150-thousand dollars a year.  He says his proposal would be about a 300-dollar tax break and would be funded by the state’s budget surplus.

Listen to Brownfield’s interview with Howard Marklein here: