Dairy Report: Dairy Farmers Leaving the Business and NAFTA Discussions

The Dairy Report 09/19/18

Talks regarding the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) are scheduled to pick up again this week as chief negotiators from the U.S. and Canada continue their push to reach an understanding. Dairy policy remains the main issue preventing an agreement between the countries who are quickly approaching their end of the month deadline.

The president has threatened to proceed without Canada, which is the number one buyer of U.S. goods. Canada seems to be offering concessions on dairy policies and other issues, but in return, they want to preserve certain parts of the original deal that include anti-dumping dispute panels, according to Bloomberg News.

Some dairy farmers can no longer wait for dairy policies to be fixed.

Wisconsin has seen 429 dairy farms leave the business so far this year, with the total number of licensed farms standing now at just 8,372. If this trend keeps on track, Wisconsin could lose the largest number of dairies since 2013.

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