Wisconsin Farmers Union Members Took Farm Priorities to Washington
The Wisconsin delegation took part in the National Farmers Union event from September 14th to 16th. Its meetings included discussions with offices representing Wisconsin in the Senate, seven members of Congress, lawmakers from other states and officials from the US Department of Agriculture, the Department of Justice and the White House.
Dairy policy was a central issue for the group. The number of US farms with commercial dairy operations has fallen by almost 40% since 2017, leaving fewer than 24,000 such businesses nationwide. Wisconsin Farmers Union members called for reforms to the milk market rather than temporary payments, including price floors adjusted for farm scale and set at the full cost of production.
The delegation also supported supply-management measures intended to align national inventories with domestic demand for fluid and manufactured milk. It called for increased investment in regional processing facilities, citing the concentration of processing capacity as an issue for producers.
The visit came as the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry moved its version of the Agricultural Act of 2026. The committee approved the bill by 12 votes to 11 along party lines shortly before Congress recessed. Wisconsin Farmers Union members welcomed provisions related to the Healthy Fluid Milk Incentive, Dairy Business Innovation Initiatives and farm-credit access.
They nevertheless said the draft relied too heavily on subsidised insurance, including Dairy Margin Coverage, and did not address underlying milk-price volatility or consolidation in the dairy industry. The Farm Bill has been operating under short-term extensions for five years since the 2018 legislation expired.
Livestock and trade policy were also discussed. The union opposed federal action allowing a temporary tariff-rate increase covering as much as 300,000 tonnes of imported ground beef. It said lower-tariff imports could reduce returns for domestic cow-calf operations and dairy-beef cross producers, and renewed its call for mandatory country-of-origin labelling for beef sold at retail. The delegation also urged strict enforcement of the Packers and Stockyards Act against purchasing practices it described as non-competitive.
WFU president Darin Von Ruden said producers were facing higher feed costs, retaliatory cross-border tariffs and lower prices at the farm gate. He said the delegation had presented its position to legislators as the House and Senate remained divided over separate Farm Bill packages. The union asked Congress to make a competition-focused Farm Bill its immediate priority when lawmakers return in November.
