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Wisconsin lost 10% of its dairy farmers in 2019 (biggest decline ever; thanks, trade war)

Wraith

Wraith

Member
Jun 28, 2018
8,892
Since this topic has come up before, figured it worth mentioning here.
Wisconsin shed 10% of its dairy farmers last year, data from the state's Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection shows.

It marked the biggest one-year drop on record, and underscored the negative impact of Trump's trade war on a swing state critical to his re-election bid.

In 2019, Wisconsin lost 819 dairy farms, the department said, leaving 7,292 dairy farms in place. The state leads the nation in the number of farm bankruptcies, according to the American Farm Bureau.

After Trump launched his trade war against China and other friendly nations in 2018, China responded by slapping hundreds of billions of dollars worth of tariffs on American products.

Last year, China slashed its purchases of American dairy products by 50%. Combined with falling milk prices, the trade war has thrown many farmers out of business. The economic environment has worsened considerably for small dairy farms in particular.
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Also note that some of this is due to former Governor Scott Walker's dairy industry incentives, starting in 2012, which ended up boosting supply far in excess of demand.
In 2012, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker announced an incentive program to produce, as a state, 30 billion pounds of milk a year by 2020 — a 15 percent increase. The state offered farmers grants for business planning, facility engineering and animal nutrition. The program, "Grow Wisconsin Dairy 30x20," required them to put up their own money as well.

Despite record production every year since 2002, Walker urged farmers to step it up even more. "The reality," he said, "is the growth is not fast enough for the opportunities that are here before us."

Dairy farmers not only met the challenge, they reached 30 billion pounds in 2016 — four years ahead of schedule.

By then, however, the market had turned and many dairy farmers were having trouble breaking even on their new investments.

Some felt duped by the agribusiness system.

"The more surplus farmers produce, the lower the price of agricultural commodities for food processors," said Kara O'Connor, government relations director for the Wisconsin Farmers Union.

"All of the most powerful players in the industry, except the farmer, benefit from overproduction."
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And regarding the farm bailouts (the ones that wouldn't have happened absent Trump's trade war, at least):
Wisconsin farmers are getting about $10 million in payments from Trump's farm bailout program announced late last year. It was designed to help producers of milk, pork, soybeans, corn and other commodities who have seen prices tumble in trade battles.

A 55-cow dairy farm would receive a one-time payment of $725 from the bailout but stood to lose between $36,000 and $48,000 in income last year from low milk prices, according to the Wisconsin Farmers Union. A 290-cow dairy would get $4,905 but would lose several hundred thousand dollars.
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Mzril

Mzril

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
435
Farmers always tend to vote against their own interests. No sympathy for any besides the Dairy Cows.
 
BDS

BDS

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
13,845
The biggest decline ever, huge, by far the biggest, people were saying, smart people, you know my uncle at MIT was smart and I'm smart too, and they're saying this is the biggest decline, Obama never touched these numbers, but you never, you don't report these things in the press, that's why you're failing.
 
Torpedo Vegas

Torpedo Vegas

Member
Oct 27, 2017
22,573
Parts Unknown.
How did this happen?

wisconsin-red-sq.jpg
 
Commedieu

Commedieu

Banned
Nov 11, 2017
15,025
Walter White Walker said:
They should probably reconsider voting Republican.
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LOL, they didn't vote republican for the jobs. Same with coal workers, the foxconn conjob, mexico paying for the wall, tax breaks, healthcare, no more troops in the middle east, etc.


They voted for the blatant bigotry and racism. As long as thats there, they will continue to vote for the GOP. This should be factored in when trying to reach out to these people.
 

Deleted member 31923

User requested account closure
Banned
Nov 8, 2017
5,826
Commedieu said:
LOL, they didn't vote republican for the jobs. Same with coal workers, the foxconn conjob, mexico paying for the wall, tax breaks, healthcare, no more troops in the middle east, etc.


They voted for the blatant bigotry and racism. As long as thats there, they will continue to vote for the GOP.
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Hey come on, they are just economically anxious.
 
Static

Static

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
6,107
BDS said:
The biggest decline ever, huge, by far the biggest, people were saying, smart people, you know my uncle at MIT was smart and I'm smart too, and they're saying this is the biggest decline, Obama never touched these numbers, but you never, you don't report these things in the press, that's why you're failing.
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Thanks for this.
 
Tlaloc

Tlaloc

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
692
Lose your farm and job to own the libs. I'm sure they will vote to trump again tho.
 
dabig2

dabig2

Member
Oct 29, 2017
5,116
Mzril said:
Farmers always tend to vote against their own interests. No sympathy for any besides the Dairy Cows.
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Farmers are literally on the frontlines of climate change (front lines for westerners at least, it's already game time in other poorer regions), and a lot of them still choose to cut their nose off to spite the face.
 
Commedieu

Commedieu

Banned
Nov 11, 2017
15,025
clevbrowns95 said:
Hey come on, they are just economically anxious.
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Exactly.

I love how all of his decisions have fucked over every single one of his voters(and the rest of us) besides the billionaires of this country. It helped expose them as just in support of bigotry, because nothing he ran on is happening. It destroys all of the excuses as to why you weren't a bigot while voting for a bigot. In one way, its great that this has happened. America needs to know whats wrong, in the open, before moving forward.

Also:

People are drinking less dairy, but that shouldn't affect these %'s as theres a huge demand from china, which is where most american profit comes from, no?
 
Sephzilla

Sephzilla

Herald of Stoptimus Crime
Member
Oct 25, 2017
17,493
That's roughly 11 farms per county in Wisconsin.

As a Wisconsinite (who thankfully voted blue in 2016) I can tell you that people around here have noticed it and don't seem to be happy with how Trump's been fucking over things here.
 
linkboy

linkboy

Member
Oct 26, 2017
13,685
Reno
Sephzilla said:
That's roughly 11 farms per county in Wisconsin.

As a Wisconsinite (who thankfully voted blue in 2016) I can tell you that people around here have noticed it and don't seem to be happy with how Trump's been fucking over things here.
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The question is, when they're in the booth, can they bring themselves to not vote for the dipshits (the GOP) who caused this mess.
 
dabig2

dabig2

Member
Oct 29, 2017
5,116
Sephzilla said:
That's roughly 11 farms per county in Wisconsin.

As a Wisconsinite (who thankfully voted blue in 2016) I can tell you that people around here have noticed it and don't seem to be happy with how Trump's been fucking over things here.
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Combined with the Foxconn factory debacle, in a more sane universe Trump would get destroyed by even Steyer in Wisconsin. Too bad this universe is anything but sane. Don't disappoint, Wisconsin.
 
-PXG-

-PXG-

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
6,186
NJ
A lot of farmers voted for Trump solely on hoping he'd change or eliminate the estate tax.
 
KtotheRoc

KtotheRoc

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 27, 2017
56,612
And how many of them are still planning on voting for Trump/Republicans again?
 
Version 3.0

Version 3.0

Member
Oct 27, 2017
11,153
linkboy said:
The question is, when they're in the booth, can they bring themselves to not vote for the dipshits (the GOP) who caused this mess.
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That would be admitting they were wrong. Trump is not the only one who doesn't like to do that, he's just an extreme case. Most people don't, even to themselves.

It's more likely a person who's been hurt by this administration, and realizes it, would just not vote.
 
OP
OP
Wraith

Wraith

Member
Jun 28, 2018
8,892
Wow.

China Tariffs to Stay Put Until After U.S. Election Despite Deal
Existing tariffs on billions of dollars of Chinese goods coming into the U.S. are likely to stay in place until after the American presidential election, and any move to reduce them will hinge on Beijing's compliance with the terms of a phase-one trade accord, people familiar with the matter said, Bloomberg News reports.

The two sides have an understanding that no sooner than 10 months after the signing of the agreement at the White House Wednesday, the U.S. will review progress and potentially trim tariffs now in place on $360 billion of imports from China, the people said, declining to be identified because the matter is private.
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What at great "deal" he's made...
 
Jehuty

Jehuty

Member
Oct 25, 2017
130
Trump won Wisconsin by 23,000 votes in 2016. I live in this state and cannot see this happening again in 2020. Of course I could be wrong (I thought Hillary would win in 2016). The caveat is that Biden would have to be the nominee. There is a reason that republicans are trying to purge the voter list here (200,000) names before the election. They know the minority vote in Milwaukee will come out strong against Trump. If Biden is the nominee, he'll take all the major cities in the state along with some of the suburbs. There will always be Trump supporters in Wisconsin, it's just that I truly believe more people just want to go back to things being normal here. They would vote for normal (this is what Biden really represents) if they had the chance. Add in a black or minority VP, and you pretty powerful combo in attracting more votes than the other guy.
 

badabeezy

Member
Oct 27, 2017
195
Wisconsinite here as well and Hillary 2016 voter. I agree with Jehuty. Wisconsin will flip back to blue but it has to be Biden. Grew up in the Milwaukee area but my wife has some family in the boonies and Biden is the closest thing to Trump but Democrat. Warren (Women/Socialist), Sanders (Jewish/Socialist), and Buttigieg (Gay) all have a factor that some people in WI will never vote far. I hate it, but its the truth here and in a lot of places in America.
 
lacer

lacer

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
6,693
might have something to do with two of the biggest milk filing for bankruptcy despite negligible declines in profitability because private equity firms are buckling down for a recession. interesting thread on the topic here
 
Robochimp

Robochimp

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
2,677
Commedieu said:
People are drinking less dairy, but that shouldn't affect these %'s as theres a huge demand from china, which is where most american profit comes from, no?
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The size of the dairy heard in WI hasn't changed, Industrial farms are causing a consolidation in the industry, family farms are getting squeezed out. Most of Trump's tariff offset payments have gone to industrial operations.
 
Liquidsnake

Liquidsnake

Member
Oct 27, 2017
11,979
Does this have nothing to do with no one drinking milk anymore? And the top distributor going out of business?

EDIT: NM, I see the tweet above.
 
Robochimp

Robochimp

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
2,677
Liquidsnake said:
Does this have nothing to do with no one drinking milk anymore? And the top distributor going out of business?

EDIT: NM, I see the tweet above.
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The two biggest dairy distributors have declared bankruptcy, while bankruptcy can end with a business operation shutting down it doesn't necessarily mean going out of business.
 
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