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Disappointment all around for failed Wisconsin dairy cattle innovation bill

Farmers and legislators are disappointed as legislation creating a 20-million dollar Wisconsin dairy cattle innovation loan program is going nowhere this session.

Assembly Ag Committee Chair Travis Tranel tells Brownfield the bill was **almost amended to 10-million for dairy cattle loans and 10-million for beef cattle loans, but the amendment failed to pass. “We should have recognized, and we had a substitute amendment that acknowledged beef prices are high and beef supply is low. It might make sense for Wisconsin to invest not only in dairy, but also into beef.”

Tranel says the original bill also sent the wrong message. “It doesn’t necessarily look good on the government when we’re pumping more money into the system and it’s going to be perceived as we’re trying to get producers to make more milk.”

Wisconsin Farm Bureau’s Tim Fiocchi tells Brownfield the lack of progress for the innovation loan bill is disappointing. “You know the problem is that between now and then, you have farmers and business people out there making investment decisions in real time, and even if it’s just a delay, delays have consequences.”

Both Fiocchi and Tranel expect this issue will come back in the next legislative session.  The 20-million dollars is already in the state budget, but Tranel says it will likely go back to the general fund.

AUDIO: State Representative and Assembly Ag Committee Chair Travis Tranel discusses several bills at the end of the State Assembly session with Brownfield’s Larry Lee

** Clarification: When this article was originally published, it read that the bill was amended. The bill had two proposed Assembly amendments, one that had already passed on a voice vote in the Senate version of the bill and a second amendment in the Assembly that would have split the funding for 10-million to dairy and 10-million to beef, but that second amendment failed to pass.