Wisconsin
Related: About this forumWisconsin farmers grapple with recent tariffs from the Trump administration Dairy and beef industry leaders share how t
A Better Wisconsin @ABetterWis
Wisconsin exported over $3B of agricultural goods in 2024, but now Trump's tariffs are hindering our family farms' ability to thrive.
Instead of delivering solutions to lower costs, WI Republicans like @RepTiffany
support Trump's failed economic agenda.
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Wisconsin farmers grapple with recent tariffs from the Trump administration
https://www.wpr.org/news/tariffs-trump-wisconsin-farmers-on-edge
Dairy and beef industry leaders share how the Trump administrations economic policies influence small farming operations across the state
By Anna Marie Yanny August 19, 2025
The Trump administrations recent tariff actions could make it difficult for Wisconsin dairy farmers to export excess milk products and for beef producers to access Chinese markets, state farm leaders told WPRs Wisconsin Today.
Consumers are contending with the highest average effective tariff rate since 1933, at 18.6 percent, according to the most recent estimate from the Budget Lab at Yale.
President Donald Trumps recent tariff modifications are part of................
But Wisconsin Farmers Union President Darin Von Ruden said dairy farmers rely on international trade to export excess milk.
Wisconsin exported over $3 billion of agricultural products in 2024, according to a report from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Extension Farm Management program.
Were currently coming out of our highest milk production part of the year, Von Ruden said. When you have that scenario, plus these new tariffs coming on, countries not being able to afford our products it stays here, which just then adds to that problem of lowering the price that farmers receive for their products........................

msongs
(72,245 posts)Norrrm
(2,836 posts)
moniss
(7,954 posts)refrigerated warehousing, if a company can find space, but milk is perishable and so excess supply has to sell or go bad in a short time of about a couple of weeks or just a bit more. The effect will be seen at the store as suppliers offer lower prices just to recoup some of the cost of production as opposed to taking a total loss. The pressure also comes because the entire dairy farm supply chain is beholden to Mother Nature since cows produce milk whether or not someone wants to buy it and so they have to be milked and that milk can either be shipped or dumped. There's no other choices if you are going to keep the herd size.
The option of sending cows to slaughter is there but that has it's own problems as well because a big move to do so across farm country will depress the market price for the cow and so shipping the cow for slaughter might get you out from under feeding and caring for her but bring a small actual cash influx. Then too there is the problem of replacing her when the milk market picks up. The part of the industry that raises calves to heifers is not going to keep up production levels if nobody is buying cows to milk and so the time from calf to producing cow has to be taken into account. Also Mom isn't going to be inseminated to produce the calf if calves aren't needed and so when the market comes back there is her gestation time as well.
It affects the feed and grain markets as well since fewer cows means less demand for hay and feed.
All in all that is why major artificial disruptions to markets create problems for supply chains that are closely interdependent on various parts to keep a reasonable balance so that long term forecasting for demand can be planned for and accommodated.