Wisconsin farmers have hard a rough couple years. Recent investments could help reverse that trend.

An extremely challenging profession for decades, farming in Wisconsin has only become more difficult in the nearly two years since the coronavirus pandemic began. 

Struggles finding enough labor. Rising expenses. Delayed or forgone animal sales because of a meat processing backlog. Growing farmer mental health concerns. 

Those problems and others, added to economic woes that caused a record number of dairy farmers to go out of business and grain growers to struggle even before the pandemic began, have prompted historic challenges for the state’s agriculture sector, Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection (DATCP) Secretary Randy Romanski said. But recent investments by federal and state agencies is expected to help farmers as they continue to navigate difficulties.