Farming

Wisconsin farmers are cautiously optimistic that a trade deal between the Trump administration and China will help give soybean growers more market certainty moving forward.

The town of Carlton board chair says most residents are comfortable with nuclear energy but leery of losing farmland to other projects.

Allison Jonjak comes from a multigeneration family cranberry farm in Sawyer County. As a cranberry outreach specialist traveling around the state, she believes the industry is moving in a positive direction.

This harvest season, the trade war with China has added to the farm economy’s woes, as producers deal with lower crop prices and high costs.

“Cranberries and cranberry farming were here before Wisconsin was Wisconsin,” a state cranberry association leader said. “Even before Wisconsin was fully a state within our country, there were people here growing and commercially raising cranberries.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is expecting a strong corn and soybean harvest this year. But low crop prices, high input costs and international trade uncertainty could hurt farmers.

Wisconsin farmers are starting to harvest this year’s soybean crop, but they’re still not sure exactly where their product is going to end up or how much they’ll get paid for it.

Hmong people have a history of being forced out of countries. But one Hmong family has found a farm to call its own near Eau Claire.

Demand for beef hasn’t budged, but the nation’s cattle herd is smaller than it has been for decades.

“It’s definitely a garden that is doing the magic that we wanted it to do,” Heather Smith, owner of Tranquil Acres, told WPR.