Wisconsin leads the nation in farm bankruptcies this year, and dairy farmers are carrying the brunt of the burden.



According to NPR, nearly 10% of Wisconsin dairy farmers may go out of business in 2019. And Wisconsin has seen an increase in suicide rates over the last few years. According to the Wisconsin State Journal, experts are attributing many of those deaths to farmers facing economic challenges.



“You look at the weather, you look at the crops you can’t get off the field, you look at the bills you can’t pay,” Patty Edelburg, vice president of the National Farmers Union, told Yahoo Finance. “Bankruptcies are up. Wisconsin is attributed as the No. 1 bankruptcy in the nation right now, when it comes to dairy farmers. That number is up, I think, 24% from last year already. We’re losing two farms a day.”

View photos Dairy farmers are facing big challenges. (Photo: AP Photo/Cara Lombardo) More

‘They’re literally being denied loans’

Over the past 15 years, there has been a 49% decrease in the number of dairy farms in Wisconsin. U.S. Courts data reveals that the Western District of Wisconsin had the highest number of Chapter 12 farm bankruptcies in 2017. And between 2016 and 2018, Wisconsin lost almost 1,200 dairy farms. (The USDA saw a 6.8% decrease in farms across the country in 2018.)

“Farming is such a stressful occupation by itself,” Edelburg said. “When you start adding financial stress on top of it, it’s just going to add more stress. Farmers can’t pay their bills, they have no extra money, they have people honing down their neck looking to pay bills. They’re going to banks and they can’t get loans. They’re literally being denied loans.”



She explained that the USDA farm agency trains its farm loan officers in how to look for warning signs as part of suicide prevention.



“The bankers are the first and the forefront to see a lot of these things,” Edelburg said. “They’re delivering the bad news, and these farmers are dealing with it on that level.”

View photos Wisconsin has the second highest number of dairy cows among U.S. states. (Chart: USDA) More

‘Farming is in his DNA’

The plight of Wisconsin dairy farmers has come under the spotlight recently. On Tuesday night, Wisconsin’s agriculture secretary nominee, Brad Pfaff, was denied his post. This came after Pfaff criticized the state legislature’s budget committee for refusing to release funds towards farmer mental health.



He noted that the current budget of the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) had only enough money to help five farmers, and that the committee members had a choice to make: “Which five farmers will it be?” This didn’t sit well with the Senate GOP who voted successfully against Pfaff’s confirmation.

“Governor Evers is right about one thing: farmers are struggling,” Wisconsin Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R) said in a statement. “Unfortunately, his pick for DATCP secretary was part of the problem, not the solution. He tried to place burdensome rules on Wisconsin farmers at a time they can least afford it and repeatedly engaged in partisan political games targeting the Legislature. The liberal Evers Administration has been no friend to farmers. The Senate will continue to take its role of oversight seriously and will exercise our responsibility to hold them in check.”

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