A Wisconsin bill aims to provide funding to small dairy farms. Industry groups pushback.
Wisconsin lawmakers want to help small dairy farmers with state money to modernize their operations, at a time when small farms are dwindling across the state. But behind the scenes, some of the state’s most powerful agricultural groups have been working to reshape that effort to give large operations a piece of the funding pie.
In this week’s feature story, Wisconsin-based reporter John McCracken reports on the details of Senate Bill 323 and the lobbying effort surrounding it, highlighting the challenges and changes taking place within the state’s critical dairy industry.
Wisconsin has lost nearly 18,000 dairy farms over the past two decades, mostly small-scale operations. Cost is a major factor in the decline of small farms —expenses of dairy farms in the U.S. have nearly doubled over the last decade — while the price farmers receive for their milk has fallen by 15% in the same time frame, according to an analysis of USDA data.
John’s story offers an important look at some of these challenges, along with insight into how large agriculture groups work to shape state policy to the potential detriment of small operators.
— Ben Felder, editor-in-chief
DATA HARVEST: Midwest and Southwest states see major increase in temporary H-2A workers, despite slow growth in program
By John McCracken, Investigate Midwest
Every state in the country has seen an increase in temporary agricultural visa workers since 2018. These workers enter the country on H-2A visas, which allow companies and farms to hire seasonal labor.
Southwest states such as Texas and New Mexico have seen drastic increases in the number of workers actively laboring in the state since workplace data became available in 2018. New Mexico started with just 308 visa workers harvesting crops in 2018. Last year, the state had 2,431 H-2A workers.
H-2A visas continue to increase year over year, but the program’s overall number of new visas slowed from 2024 to 2025, when the increase was less than a single percentage point.
ICYMI: Inside China’s global ag expansion
Mónica Cordero’s investigation from December traces how tariffs, trade policy, and China’s global infrastructure investments are reshaping agricultural markets in ways U.S. farmers may feel for decades.
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