Category: Agriculture

University of Wisconsin-Madison agriculture and economics professor Chuck Nicholson explained why the Trump administration’s recent tariffs will lower the price of milk while slashing incomes for American dairy farms, harshly impacting Wisconsin’s dairy industry.

Tariffs enacted under the Trump administration could have significant impacts on the agriculture industry in the U.S. and particularly on the dairy industry in Wisconsin, according to University of Wisconsin associate professor of agriculture and economics Chuck Nicholson.

“The tariffs have a number of different impacts, whether that be the tariffs we are placing on imports from other countries or the tariffs that other countries will place on us,” Nicholson said.

“That whipsawing back and forth, that creates a tremendous amount of uncertainty,” said  Steven Deller, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor who researches the state’s agricultural and manufacturing economy. “And one thing that the economy hates is uncertainty.”

At University of Wisconsin-Madison, radiology and biomedical engineering professor Pallavi Tiwari is leading a team of researchers to make cancer diagnoses more comprehensive with the help of AI. Tiwari is also one of the leaders for the school’s RISE-AI and RISE-THRIVE initiatives focused on AI in advancing health outcomes.

Chuck Nicholson, an associate professor of animal and dairy sciences and agricultural and applied economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, shared insights on the potential ramifications.

His research, recently featured in Time magazine, highlights the challenges posed by the back-and-forth nature of tariffs on the economy.

Farmers may prevent blight by spraying their fields with fungicides, but if overdone, this practice has its drawbacks, University of Wisconsin professor of plant pathology Andrew Bent said. To prevent blight and overspraying, professor and Department of Plant Pathology Chair Amanda Gevens uses a tool called Blitecast to communicate to farmers the appropriate time to spray fungicides.

“I’m looking at whether we’ll get into a tit-for-tat type of trade war,” said Steven Deller, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies Wisconsin’s agricultural and manufacturing economy. “One of the things the Canadian Prime Minister was talking about is cutting off the electricity supply to the U.S. If we get into that kind of tit-for-tat, then things are going to start to deteriorate rapidly. So I’m just going to be watching how our trading partners respond.”

About 20% of U.S. milk production is exported annually, with about 40% of that going to Canada, Mexico, and China, according to Chuck Nicholson, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. If the domestic dairy industry gets only a little more milk than traders were expecting, prices drop as a result, Nicholson says. So if the dairy industry started trying to sell that 20% domestically instead of exporting it, prices would plummet, making it difficult for farmers to continue to operate.