Farm Groups and Wisconsin Lawmakers Discuss Priorities for this Year's Farm Bill

Thursday, April 20th, 2023 -- 9:01 AM

(By Hope Kirwan, Wisconsin Public Radio) Farmer groups and federal lawmakers from Wisconsin are weighing in on their priorities for this year's farm bill.

According to Hope Kirwan with Wisconsin Public Radio, the federal legislation is passed roughly every five years and funds a wide range of programs in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, from crop insurance to grants for rural communities to federal food assistance.

The last version, the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, was enacted in December 2018 and extends through fiscal year 2023. Tyler Wenzlaff, director of national affairs for the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation, said his organization's top priority is returning the formula for pricing milk to what it was before the last farm bill.

The price of milk sold for beverages, called Class I, is based on the advance prices for cheese, which is Class III, or butter and dry milk powder, called Class IV. The old formula took whichever price class was higher, but the 2018 farm bill changed the formula to average the two prices together as a way to help the milk industry improve their risk management strategies.

Wenzlaff said the two price classes typically mirror each other when increasing or declining. But federal food programs during the COVID-19 pandemic, like the Farmers to Families Food Boxes, pushed the price of cheese much higher, which ultimately caused farmers to lose money from their milk checks rather than receiving their usual premium for milk. 

"You have this whole pricing system that is very convoluted, very complicated. And all sudden, you have some government intervention and it moves prices that traditionally don't move in two directions and they're going all out of whack," Wenzlaff said. "One of the things that we're looking for is greater transparency in the system."

He said the Farm Bureau is hoping to see a bigger overhaul of the federal milk marketing order system through the USDA. But the group is hoping lawmakers will at least put the old pricing formula back in place while the industry works with federal officials on a new way forward.

Wisconsin Farmers Union president Darin Von Ruden said his group is also pushing for bigger changes for the dairy industry in the next farm bill, including a more farm-friendly pricing structure.

But he said the dairy industry also has to address the decades-long problem of having an oversupply of milk.

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