Frederica Freyberg:
Farmers in Wisconsin and across the nation wait and watch the unfolding and hurried negotiations in Washington over a new Farm Bill. The old Farm Bill needs to be extended by December 20 or key farm programs expire by the end of the year. Now, 80% of the roughly $500 billion Farm Bill goes to nutritional aid for low-income people. The rest includes price supports, crop insurance and other programs directed at producers. It’s a lot of money and a lot of programs. Here to weigh in on the progress is Tyler Wenzlaff of the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation. And thanks very much for being here.

Tyler Wenzlaff:
Thank you.

Frederica Freyberg:
So what are the most important parts of the Farm Bill for Wisconsin producers?

Tyler Wenzlaff:
Yeah. So some of the priorities that Wisconsin Farm Bureau has been advocating for is changes to reference prices. As you alluded to earlier, we would like to see a change in the DMC program, which is a dairy margin program, changing the tier one coverage from 5 million pounds to 6 million pounds, and then also changes to the dairy business initiative. And so, right now it’s funded at $20 million. With the help of Senator Baldwin and Congressman Van Orton, we’d like to see that money moved to $36 million.

Frederica Freyberg:
So you talked about a lot of programs that might be kind of like a foreign language to a lot of viewers, but it has to do with price support. Is that right?

Tyler Wenzlaff:
For sure. Yeah. The dairy margin coverage program is something that covers small to medium farms. And so Wisconsin has the highest participation rate in the country at over 80%. And so we’d like to make sure that as our dairy herds become a little bit bigger, this program modernizes with those programs, with those farms.

Frederica Freyberg:
So what is the status of talks around this in Washington right now?

Tyler Wenzlaff:
Yeah. So negotiations are hot and heavy right now. So we could see a deal by the end of the weekend. And Congress has been very good at pushing off things. They’ve gotten to an extreme level right now where we only have four days left in the congressional session. And so what we’re hoping for is a clean extension into next year. And that’s probably the most likely scenario. And we hope to have something confirmed by the end of the weekend and voted on next week.

Frederica Freyberg:
What happens if nothing is confirmed or voted on?

Tyler Wenzlaff:
Yeah. So Wisconsin probably faces the most dire situation because of our reliance on dairy. We’re facing what’s called the dairy cliff if we don’t have something done by the end of the year. So if we don’t have an extension done, USDA would be forced to revert back to permanent law, which is from 1949. And so they would have to begin purchasing dairy products at accelerated levels. So that would be at twice the price of what we see right now. So instead of farmers getting $25, $24 per hundredweight for their products, they’d see $50. And so while that may sound like a boon to Wisconsin farmers, the chaos that it would put into markets would outweigh any kind of benefits.

Frederica Freyberg:
But you think that there will be a deal for the one year extension by the end of the weekend?

Tyler Wenzlaff:
Yeah, it sounds like, you know, when you talk to different congressional offices, the most likely scenario is a clean extension into next year with a continuing resolution to fund the government that has ad hoc disaster and economic assistance as well.

Frederica Freyberg:
So it appears that the incoming Trump administration wants to deeply cut spending. What concerns are there for spending in the Farm Bill?

Tyler Wenzlaff:
Yeah, so that’s one of the things that we really have been taking a look at is what does that mean for SNAP benefits because while those support those that go to the grocery store that are low income, it also supports Wisconsin farmers. They’re buying Wisconsin farmer products. And so we hope that we can take a look at and make sure that those reforms are moderated in the future.

Frederica Freyberg:
Because again, SNAP is kind of the former food stamp program.

Tyler Wenzlaff:
Yep, yep. Exactly.

Frederica Freyberg:
And again, farmers’ products go to stores for people to buy that.

Tyler Wenzlaff:
Yep. Yep. Definitely.

Frederica Freyberg:
That’s the connection.

Tyler Wenzlaff:
The connection between, you know, the nutrition program and SNAP and Wisconsin dairy farmers is very deep and something especially in Wisconsin is very — something that we have to be very mindful of.

Frederica Freyberg:
Something else in the headlines right now is around raw milk. And I have two questions on that for you. First, what is your position on the consumption of raw milk and second, what about the testing requirements that are now being rolled out for dairy farmers around testing raw milk against things like bird flu?

Tyler Wenzlaff:
Sure. So Wisconsin Farm Bureau has a policy that we believe right now, it is up to the consumer whether they want to purchase raw milk or get that from the farm. We would say that it is not the best idea to do. There are some health concerns that come with that, and it’s probably better for the consumer to get pasteurized milk from the grocery store, but that is up to the consumer to decide. When it comes to testing for bird flu, USDA is in the process of rolling out new mandates for testing. They are beginning with the six pilot program states that they started with a couple of months ago. Wisconsin will begin testing over the next couple of months, and we’re working with USDA and our Department of Agriculture and Trade and Consumer Protection to make sure those details are worked out and how that testing will be done, because Wisconsin isn’t like a lot of other states where we only have 80 dairy farms. We have over 5,000. And so testing each one of those is going to be a hefty lift.

Frederica Freyberg:
Yeah. Tyler Wenzlaff, thanks very much.

Tyler Wenzlaff:
Yeah. Thank you.