Approval of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA 2.0, also known as the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement) will do little to reverse the problems of the NAFTA agreement of 1994. Nothing in the proposed replacement agreement will prevent job outsourcing, nor is there any part of the agreement that would reverse our current agricultural trade deficit. ... Read more
Putting the skis into storage until next season is always difficult, in more ways than one.
The Association of Equipment Manufacturers is regularly asked to comment on the state of the agriculture industry. As an equipment manufacturing industry representative, I often find myself responding to questions from our members, reporters or industry stakeholders related to current market…
Sanford Bishop and Sonny Perdue go way back.
We are deluding ourselves if we think that exports alone will forge a viable future for America’s dairy farm families. We’ve had 25 years of steadily increasing trade, and look where it’s gotten us: 352 Wisconsin dairy farms lost in 2016, 465 Wisconsin dairy farms lost in 2017 and 691 Wiscon…
Effectively representing the interests of the nation’s dairy farmers and their cooperatives requires a balance of short-, intermediate- and long-term efforts. Nowhere is that principle more evident than in our fight against fake milk and milk products — and it motivates why we’re opening ano…
Every spring for years, I’ve heard secondhand reports from the great social event of the season here in northwest Wisconsin. But sadly, I’d never been invited to tag along.
By the time my Writer’s Notebook hits the press, this curious reporter in the southwest corner of the state will have celebrated a milestone. On April 27, I turned 30 — as in I’ve now entered my third decade on this spinning globe.
Farmers take financial risks every year just by doing business.
If you want to anger almost any American farmer, write something less than flattering about the declining use of biofuels — especially ethanol — in the U.S. today.
More than half of the U.S. population works for a small business, according to a recent news release from WalletHub, a personal-finance website.
There’s plenty of gloom to go around these days in Wisconsin agriculture, and while the newly released 2017 Census of Agriculture did reveal some troubling — albeit not very surprising — trends, it also offered a few reasons for optimism.
As a farmer, if you haven’t heard about the Supreme Court case that was settled in March, it will be well worth your time to take a minute and get caught up.
I tend to say “there’s never a dull moment” a lot, and for good reason.
A recent visit to Linda’s Town and Country Bakery in the village of Birnamwood rekindled fond memories of my family’s bakery.
On April 3, I had the opportunity to testify before the Speaker’s Task Force on Water Quality in Madison.
As farmers across the country prepare for the 2019 planting season, the one question on everyone’s minds seems to be: Will the new farm bill provide an adequate safety net to see farm families through another brutal year?
Last year, Wisconsin lost 691 dairy farms — the most since 2011. Wisconsin also leads neighboring states in farm bankruptcies. Consecutive years of low milk prices, increasing operational costs and changes in trade policy are exerting pressure on dairy farmers and, by extension, the entire d…
To the editor:
On an April Sunday afternoon a year ago, the last ancestral connection to the southern Illinois dairy farm of my youth was severed when my mother died quietly and peacefully.
It occurred to me just the other day, I think my Christmas tree is under one of the piles of snow still hanging on in the backyard.
To the editor:
Now that the worst of the winter of 2018-19 is behind us (we hope so, anyway), the roads are getting busier. Before long, traffic will increase even more as spring fieldwork gets underway and tractors and farm implements hit the road in the rush to get crops planted between rains.
“Reality.” It’s a word I’ve run across lately more than I’d like.
Of all the places you’d expect to see a fight between the cold, hard face of ag economics and the warm, tender heart of rural America, that place would not be the corner of West 41st Street and Eighth Avenue in New York City, the home of The New York Times.
In 2016, dairymen and women were among the agricultural coalition that helped flip traditionally blue states red — places like Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio — during Donald Trump’s journey to the White House.
Cabin fever got the best of us one recent evening, so we headed out to Amery Ale Works for a relaxing evening of pizza, beer and trivia.
Anyone who knows me knows I’m not one to take a vacation. I mean, I like vacations — who doesn’t? But for me, it’s hard to feel like I have the time, especially working under a deadline week after week. So when my significant other, Jamie, told me he had a few vacation days to use up before …
If the ballot box is the ultimate source of power in the U.S., then voters in Toledo, Ohio, used that power Feb. 26 to create what’s now being called a “Bill of Rights” for their wide, blue neighbor, Lake Erie.
When it comes to global trade, many in the American agricultural community feel like they are being passed by as the rest of the world advances with new trade agreements. Given that agricultural exports are often one of the brightest points on our trade balance sheets, not helping us reach n…
Congressional Democrats last month rolled out what they've dubbed the Green New Deal — a sweeping set of economic stimulus proposals aimed at combating climate change and addressing "economic inequality." Sponsors include Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Sen. Ed Market, D-Mass.
The article “Problems piling up: Winter weather wreaks havoc on western Wisconsin farms” (March 6, Page 1A) described the catastrophic winter weather damage that caused numerous barn roofs to collapse in western and west-central Wisconsin. Early this month, I visited some of the impacted far…
As dairy farmers, we find ourselves looking for answers to our low prices. Whether you have 25 cows or 5,000 cows, we’re often operating below the cost of production. It also doesn’t matter what region of the U.S. in which a person is dairying; experts claim that most dairies are $2 per hund…
As I write this, the temperature is hovering in the upper 30s. It rained last night, and more is in the forecast. I thought rain would be better than snow, but that’s not the case. Flooding is rampant both in town and out on the rural roads, where county sheriffs have been calling in reports…
While officials in Washington stare at a federal budget proposal headed nowhere and a federal budget deficit headed to the moon, farm leaders in rural America are closely watching two recent moves into Big Ag by Big Retail.
Mexico imports nearly a quarter of the U.S. dairy industry’s exports annually. It’s a critical $1.4 billion marketplace. And it’s one that President Donald Trump continues to risk damaging permanently — and unnecessarily.
This year’s theme for National Agriculture Day, Thursday, March 14, is particularly fitting — “Agriculture: Food for Life.” We all have to eat, so when it comes right down to it, few things are as important to the mere survival of the human race as agriculture.
Every now and then while surfing on Facebook I’ll come across quizzes.
According to the Roman calendar, the Ides of March was the ancient empire’s traditional day to settle debts. In 44 B.C., Brutus and Cassius, two of Rome’s elite senators, settled a political debt with Julius Caesar, their emperor, by stabbing him to death in the Senate on the Ides, or March 15.
Soil health has been a hot topic in agricultural circles in recent years. The concept of improving long-range crop yields through healthier soil — promoted by increasingly popular practices such as cover crops — frequently makes the agendas of farmer meetings and conferences.
Not much more than a month ago, I expressed some concern for ski season based on our lack of snow.
To most farmers and ranchers, “sustainable” is a word that, like exercise or vacation, has a dictionary definition and a personal definition. The difference between the two, however, often is the difference between the county fair and the World’s Fair.
Climate change can be difficult to fully wrap your mind around. My fear is that more people will engage only after facing a crisis themselves — losing a home due to flooding, markets upended by multi-year droughts or water shortages.
I remember a conversation with some farmers last October who were excited that they had been contacted by the Wall Street Journal about contributing to a story.
If you get a group of dairy farmers together to discuss the challenges facing the industry, you won’t have to wait long before someone mentions the decline in fluid milk consumption. There is no doubt this is a problem for the dairy community. There is also a direct link behind this and the …
One of the oldest theoretical constructions in economics declares that in a perfect market, short-term profits and losses eventually even out so that, in the long term, all profits are zero.
Air temperatures had hovered well below zero for days. Schools were canceled and no outside farm chores seemed worth the effort of applying the required six layers and venturing out.
After a relatively mild start to the snowy season in southwest Wisconsin, Old Man Winter has finally decided to appear. The past few weeks have been plagued with snowy stretches, sub-zero temperatures (followed by above-average warmth), more snow, sleet and most recently, ice, which closed s…
To the editor:
I’ve been covering U.S.-China trade relationships pertaining to agriculture for almost two decades.
Each of us has our own idea of “rural,” based on our personal experiences and perceptions; one person’s small town might be another’s “big-city” shopping hub.