Pretty cost the same, except for one
of the four warms up a little bit
more natural will
keep its shape better than
homemade snow.
Well.
Wisconsin farmers are likely
on edge, watching the slashing
and freezing of federal funding,
billions of dollars of which goes
toward farm programs.
President of the Wisconsin Farmers
Union, Darren Van Rudin, joins us.
And thanks for being here.
Thanks for having.
Me. So in the midst of moves to
eliminate things like world food
aid, freeze federal grants
and loans, and the latest
congressional resolution
to cut the USDA budget,
how on edge are Wisconsin farmers?
Well, I think really on edge.
And I'm especially looking at
folks that have
applied for grants in the past,
mainly in the renewable energy side.
We have a next door neighbor that
installed the system this summer,
just put it online here a few weeks
ago and got a notice
on Tuesday morning that the
$70,000 grant that
it was supposed to be receiving from
the federal government fell on hold.
So, you know, that's that
pocket change is not something that
you can just go out and make up in
a couple of days. So,
you know, we're really hoping that
the freeze
gets taken back and that
those funds get distributed.
But then also looking at what's
happening with the U.S..
Aid aid program,
we haven't heard directly from any
farmers here in the state of
Wisconsin, but certainly
from some of the other states around
the upper Midwest and corn and
soybean programs that are
involved in that are really
on edge because they've become
accustomed to providing
those corn and soybeans for that
program.
Yeah, indeed.
So the first program you talked
about with the $70,000
investment, this is the kind
of grant program where
the farmers are supposed to be
reimbursed for work they've already
done.
Yeah, it's the Renewable Energy for
America program.
And, you know, it's a long standing
program. It's not like it's new.
It's been around for a dozen
rounds, probably 15 years already.
And it's really to help put
solar and wind on your
either on your buildings or on your
property and and
get some help with it.
It isn't like it's paying for the
whole system.
It just provides a little
bit more of an incentive to get it
installed.
How likely is it that anything to
do with climate mitigation or
alternative energy will in
fact be on the chopping block?
You know, with the words coming out
of the president's mouth?
I think it's a real good chance that
that's going to happen.
So as farmers also look
ahead to spring planting,
what is the uncertainty like?
Well, that's pretty high right now
because of really two factors.
If the USAID program
does get stalled, that's just going
to back up a supply chain.
There's a lot of corn
and soybeans that go into that
market.
And so that just means lower prices
anytime that there is excess food.
It's going to mean lower prices and
fertilizer.
And all our input costs certainly
are not going down with
some of the tariff trade war
talks.
Those prices are probably just going
to go up. So we're going to continue
to see that difference
of not being able to pay our bills
at the end of the month.
Just taking a little bit of a turn
here. We keep reading that
that bird flu is on
the increase.
What are dairy farmers
thinking about that?
But, you know, very concerned.
And, you know, on two fronts, there
are two. I think, number one, not
knowing when it's
going to stop or if it's going to
affect your herd.
But number two, being able to get
the accurate information that we
need, because
another one of the
things that President Biden or
President Trump has done and
taking that information away from
the public health service.
Are you getting any of that kind of
information from state
egg officials?
Yes, They've been good about trying
to continue to keep that information
in front of us.
And I know that camp has
a weekly information meeting for
anybody in agriculture that wants to
participate. So we've been
able to get that there.
But when you're looking at
that disease that really
is affecting all of the country.
So trying to figure out where the
spread is going to next is
vital and that takes national
help to get that done.
So we've been talking about all
manner of kind of uncertainties.
What are your members telling you
in the midst of this?
Well, you know, certainly
understand that there are some
things that do need to happen,
but certainly the
amount or the variability
that is happening, you know,
we we can adjust to certain
amounts of things.
But with what we're
seeing right now, that uncertainty.
You know, five, six, seven, maybe
even eight fronts is totally
different than what we have seen in
the past. You know, we certainly can
handle that to 1 or 2 different
things that might affect your bottom
line. But when you have so many
different things all at once,
it gets really scary.
All right. Well, we will be watching
it. Daryn Von Ruden, thanks
very much.
Thank you, Fredricka.
For more on this and other issues
facing Wisconsin, visit our Web site
at PBS's wisconsin.org
and then click on the news tab.
Join us Tuesday for Governor
Tony Evers 2025
State budget address.
It's live at 7 p.m.
on PBS's Wisconsin.
That's our program for tonight.
I'm Fredericka Freiberg.
Have a good weekend.