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Wisconsin’s Ag Secretary commends resilient ag sector

Wisconsin’s ag secretary says the word that describes the agriculture community in 2024 is resilience.  Randy Romanski tells Brownfield despite tough conditions, farmers continued to produce. “When you look at this last year weather wise, it was dry, it was very wet, and it was dry again and farmers got a crop in the ground and they harvested a crop.”

Romanski says recent research shows the impact of agriculture on the Wisconsin economy is 116.3 billion dollars and agriculture employs about 10% of the state’s workforce.  He says Wisconsin agriculture is not all about one thing, and that diversity is the state’s strength. “We have economic clusters that are strong and growing in things like dairy and dairy processing, sauces and yeasts, foods, dried distillers grain, and outputs from the biofuels industry. Those are things that are attractive to the rest of the world, which helps our economic engine.”

Romanski says investments in transportation infrastructure including the Local Road Improvement Program and the Port of Milwaukee have helped Wisconsin stay competitive. “It’s an easier shipment to get out of Milwaukee because of the smaller volume and that direct shipment is probably a better deal for the receiving country, so it’s a win-win scenario.”

Romanski says the last three years have been the highest three years for food and agriculture exports in state history.

AUDIO: Secretary Randy Romanski discusses Wisconsin agriculture in 2024 with Brownfield’s Larry Lee