Good morning and welcome to Matt and Air on Air.
Jane Matt and Air, Greg Bach, Calvin Butenoff coming to you live from our studio here at Radio Park in Racine.
You can always join us, call or text the number is the same.
855-752-4842.
Leave a comment if you're watching on the live stream on Facebook, YouTube, and what used to be Twitter, another really jam-packed
show for
you.
Coming up after the 1030 News, Tyler Wensloff,
is going to join us.
He is with the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation, and we're going to talk about foreign ownership in U.S.
farmland.
And this is
not a new thing, but it is a growing concern among some.
And I admit that I am not particularly knowledgeable about this, which is why
We have on people who are knowledgeable about these things.
We are expert adjacent.
Expert adjacent, exactly.
So Tyler Wensloff is gonna be joining us.
I also wanna talk with him about, it's called Acre Trader.
Yeah.
It's all perfectly legal.
It's still, I think it's Hinky.
That's my word.
I love
that word.
Hinky, you like Hinky.
I heard the first time in the movie, The Fugitive.
There's a discussion over the word.
Tommy Lee Jones hates it.
Yes.
So we're going to ask him about the acre trader and that as well.
So that's coming up after 10.30.
After 11 o'clock, Judge Susan Crawford will be joining us.
Of course, Tuesday, the big election here in Wisconsin, Judge Susan Crawford against former Attorney General Brad Schimel.
So we will be talking to Judge Susan Crawford after 11 o'clock.
Dan Schaefer will also be here when we're talking to the judge.
Dan, of course, from the Reconbobulation Area and also Civic Media's political editor.
He has a new column in the Reconbobulation Area about...
Some of Brad Schimmel's actions when he was the Attorney General of Wisconsin or shall I say inactions?
Yes
of Brad Schimmel when he was the Attorney General of Wisconsin
he loved getting coins made Yes, he is a he's a
big proponent of of of commemorative coins only cost us ten thousand dollars But I'm sure for Brad it was worth every penny and then as we always do we will wrap it up with this shouldn't be a thing today
Thank you, Calvin, for finding this.
There ought to be a law.
Oh, there are several elements to this, Tisbat, which I really like.
I feel like when it comes to Tisbat, you enjoy the title a lot when the title is well written.
Whereas I feel like for me, like yesterday's the cult of chicken.
Oh, yeah.
I'm obsessed with this whole marketing campaign now.
The ad for KFC.
Oh,
it's awesome.
If you missed it, and if you ever miss any of the tizbats, you can actually download those as a single podcast, right?
Yes, you can.
So where would I do that if I wanted to do that?
That's a great question, Jane.
You're going to go to civicmedia.us, click on the shows tab at the top of the page, and you're going to go to find Matt and there on air, click on Matt and there on air.
And on the right side, you'll see you'll see something that said the exact wording is special segments.
Under that, you'll see a graphic of Jane and I and says this shouldn't be that you can click on that.
And you can download those straight from the page to your device or
Or go to your favorite podcast distribution center of choice and download both the show, the full show as a podcast, as well as this shouldn't be a thing.
Subscribe to them.
They'll be automatically delivered to you.
You'll get three downloads from us a day, one for first hours, two for second hour, and the third will be this shouldn't be a thing.
and then they're right there.
And then you could listen
when you
can.
Exactly, because we know you're busy.
You have lives.
Even the people who don't like us on the live stream are like, I gotta go to the market.
I gotta download this and hate it later.
which you can do.
That's so
nice, that's so nice that you can hate on us later.
So take advantage of it.
And another, just a reminder as well, we are, it is underway, our statewide text to win breaking the spring contest also next hour after the 11 o'clock news, we will have the keyword that you want to text in via the Civic Media app only.
Only.
So make sure you have it.
Download the Civic Media app.
It is completely free.
You can do it right now.
Wherever you get your apps, download the Civic Media app.
And the next hour when we give you the keyword, you can text that in to whatever station you are listening to across the state up for grabs.
A chulab is to get away.
Milwaukee Brewers Club level tickets.
We went to a game last year.
Great seats seats are cushiony.
Yeah, they're they're great seats or a hundred dollars in cash And then every entry gets you into the grand prize John drawing a brand new Queen mattress set from Verlo that
sounds
fancy including a mattress sheets and more mattresses are pricey Especially if you want a good one
mattresses are pricey.
Oh my god sheets are pricey to buy new sheets, and I really lost my mind like why aren't these $30 their sheets?
It cost me like $75, like medium ones.
Yeah.
So this is your chance to pick up a brand new Queen mattress set from Verlo with a mattress, sheets, and more.
That's the grand prize for our break into spring text to win statewide contest coming your way next hour at 11.06.
Again, the election on Tuesday getting all kinds of attention and not just here in Wisconsin.
It's interesting how many outside people are interested what's happening here.
This from Wisconsin Public Radio talking about things that are hinky.
Nick Rommel with the byline again from WPR, election mailers disguised as local newspapers sent to Wisconsinites.
These mailers published by conservative funded media company are coming from Chicago.
Yeah.
You have some of these.
You've
been the recipient of some of these.
I got a lovely little paper, lovely little paper called The Kenosha Reporter.
That's mentioned in this article.
And as soon as I looked at it, I said, this is a scam.
And I open it up and oh, Mother Glory.
It's just all the great things that the GOP are doing, all the great things that Brad Schimeliger and how much Susan Crawford hates the law.
It's just such, it's not even trying it.
Well, but it, it.
It looks, and again, they have some examples of, it looks like a legitimate local newspaper.
The Kenosha Reporter, the Fox City's News, the Chippewa Valley Times.
So you get this in your mailbox and you look, it's like, oh, I didn't know this was a new local news outlet.
Yeah, that's because it's not.
No, it's not.
This is packaging for the Wisconsin Republican Party, essentially, trying to pass itself off again as a legitimate news organization, which it's not.
It is not indeed, yeah.
The return address for all of these publications and office building in Chicago.
Interestingly, you know, it was a big funder of this company that does this based out of Chicago.
The E-Lines.
This company is called Metric Media, which again is sending out these bogus newspapers, trying to look legitimate, but essentially just a way to.
push the Republican Party line.
Metric Media has received millions of dollars from conservative megadoner Richard E. Line.
Hmm.
Yeah.
It's part of a larger trend, according to this article, thousands of mostly digital media operations now use the cover of a traditional newspaper to push their agenda.
So I guess my point is just be aware.
Yes.
Be aware that
What is ending up in your mailbox along with so many of these mailers now?
Oh my god,
and they're spending a lot of money in those mailers that really heavy cardboard stuff.
Oh, yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Can't be
cheap.
No, they are not.
They weren't cheap when I was doing elections back in the day.
They're not being cheaper nowadays and and you got to put more pictures on them, more colors on them, more words on them and people and honestly, people see them and and
If the person you like is in black and white, you know it's not for them.
So you throw it out if you support them and vice versa.
So honestly, I throw away, I throw away like when I get Kamala Harris ones, I throw in the trash because I'm voting for her, it's great.
Don't send them to me.
Save your money.
Websites linked onto mailers obtained by WPR, also published by Metric Media.
Metric Media, also behind a fake Catholic newspaper.
that went out before the 2024 presidential election.
So again, just have this in the back of your mind when you get some things that you think might be legitimate.
You may want to double check that just a little bit because misinformation, it's there.
It's out there.
It's a thing.
I'm always very, very not surprised.
It just makes me who it always is.
It's always the same group of people.
the ones who are the bootstrapers, we are the party of personal responsibility, we are the ones who have the best, we are the patriots.
But they always have to resort to, they have to resort to lies and backhanded obfuscation.
Oh, good word.
They just always have to do that.
Where is he, we're here on the matinee around air program.
We try to be upfront when we're doing something that's not legitimate.
Like this next ad that we're gonna run for you.
We created this last year before the presidential election and shockingly, it's in the running for an award.
What?
I know from the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association.
That's not happening.
I think that event is in May.
Yeah.
But we just found out that in the humor category, our spoof ad is in the running.
We are so humorous.
And it's still kind of appropriate even today.
Oh yeah.
Right?
It applies.
So Calvin, let's
Take a listen to our completely legitimate, totally on the up and up.
It's not.
Spoof, Ed.
From Matt Nair, on air.
Oh, beautiful floors, spacious skies, forever
wait away.
Dear regular Americans, life can be hard.
Finding affordable housing, childcare that doesn't equal a mortgage payment, and hoping your used car makes it another year.
We know what it's like to struggle.
Just try finding a decent Italian villa that doesn't need to be completely gutted.
34 million dollars a year just doesn't go as far as it used to, does
it?
Sometimes.
We know how much money it takes to buy a United States Supreme Court justice,
so they'll rule in
favor of our company's best interests, not yours.
So vote for the people who want to keep giving tax breaks to big corporations and the ultra wealthy.
We're America's 1% and we intend to keep it that way.
Big finish.
Paid for by your taxes.
And we got nothing else super packed.
Someone the other day said it was unfunny on that's that's not true.
We got we got nominated for a major award for humor
Well, we'll see what happens when we go to that in May, but you know, it's we know how much it costs to buy up
a U.S.
Supreme Court Justice.
Now we know how much it costs to buy a Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice.
Apparently it's around $20-21 million.
Oh,
I think it's gonna be $30 million.
We'll have to
check with Elon when he's here on Sunday.
Stay close.
You are listening to Matt Nair on air.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
We'll be right back.
Good morning and welcome back to Mattnare on Air.
Jane McNair, Greg Buck, Calvi, Teenie on the board coming to you from our studio at Radio Park in Racine.
You can always join us, call or text at 855-752-4842.
Leave a comment on the live stream on Facebook, YouTube, and what used to be Twitter Brewers.
Yeah, they lost yesterday, but that's all right.
There's 947,000 games left in this season.
There's 161 games
left.
There's lots of games left in this season, including on Saturday.
When the Brewers once again take on the Yankees, our broadcast starts at 11.30.
You can't listen to the game on the stream.
You do have to listen on Terrestrial Radio, so check out the game this Saturday, starting at 11.30, WRCE Richland Center, WISS in Oshkosh, WRJN here in Racine and Kenosha, WCQM in Park Falls, and our latest newest Brewers affiliate, WBZH.
in Hayward, Brew Crew, and the Yankees this Saturday are broadcast beginning at 11.30.
Before we get away to our segment, we're calling Go Away.
No, really, Go Away.
There's an article about turnout from the Milwaukee Journal's Sentinel Mali Beck, early voting near 500,000 in Wisconsin's election featuring pivotal Supreme Court race.
That's big turnout.
Early turnout
that's huge early turnout for a spring race.
It really is and that's great because we want to see people take part in our democracy But please don't think that means that you don't need to vote and that your vote isn't important
One thing we saw last year was the acceptance of the GOP of early voting
And people will see the embrace all of a sudden from yes
from Republicans.
Oh vote bank your vote And so when you see early voting that does not mean that they're voting for the person you may you may endorse so Big turnouts wonderful.
I love a lot especially for spring election, but If anything says it more than this it's it's a fact you need a plan Vote you can still early vote today.
It ends in most municipalities today
You might be able to vote tomorrow, it depends, but you have to call your local clerk's office to find out.
But most likely then is today.
Then you have to vote on Tuesday, but make a plan.
Bring friends.
Mark a time off if you have to go.
Absolutely.
And I will say this from personal experience.
You think you can vote and then something can happen.
You get a
flat tire.
Flat tire.
You can't
get sick.
Yeah, exactly.
And then all of a sudden you are not able to vote and you're not thinking about it anymore.
because you got other things to deal with.
So when it's front of mind, take care of make a plan now.
And if you can vote early, yes.
And please remember every vote counts.
This is likely to be a very, very tight election when it comes to the Supreme Court race.
It could come down to a couple of thousand votes.
That's nothing.
That's nothing.
And something we haven't talked about at all, which is very much probably going to be the thing is if.
Susan Crawford wins, there will automatically be scrimmings of fraud, election tampering, ballot
dumping,
all the things that we got in 2020, not in 2024 for some reason, it was just fine.
Isn't that interesting.
But in 2020, you will see that again, if she wins,
period.
That's why it would be really nice if she'd win by a landslide.
She wins by a landslide
makes it a little bit easier.
Either way, please make a plan to vote, be a voter.
It is critically.
Critically important and Judge Susan Crawford is going to be joining us after the 11 o'clock news as well So stick around for that very briefly before we go to the 1030 news.
I just wanted to do this because it makes me laugh Vice president ish JD Vance and his wife are going to Greenland today Why is that Jane because of course Donald Trump wants Greenland and they should apparently just give it to us but
Originally, they were going to go to the capital city of Greenland, and they sent some advanced people to Greenland, hoping to set up some meetings with some locals.
No one wants to talk to JD Vance or his wife.
I don't blame him.
I don't want to talk to him either.
No one was willing to get on camera and say, this sounds like a great idea.
We want to be part of the US as much as the Trump administration can say that that
is not the attitude we're hearing from people who live in Greenland.
I think that kind of cold calling is dangerous because I'm the type of person.
I'm the type of person who's gonna be like, yeah.
Oh, do it.
I love to talk to them.
Where do I go?
Is there gonna be a sandwich available for lunch?
Like, I would totally go in on it.
That would be fun.
Originally, they were going to go again to the biggest city in Greenland, and then they were gonna go to a dog sled race.
and meet with some locals but no one wanted to do that so now they are just going to the American base that is in Greenland and then they're going to come home.
Things I am reading this morning say essentially that JD Vance is going to go there and insult Denmark and say what a poor job Denmark has done with Greenland and Greenland is a mess and dirty and all of these things so
I always think it's a good idea when I invite myself over to someone else's house that once I get there to insult them.
Nothing works better.
Nothing works better than inviting yourself somewhere where you're not wanted.
And then when you get there, you insult your host.
It's like if the president of another country came to your country, and instead of extending a warm handshake and saying, how can we help you, you yell at him in front of the press.
Oh, that's right.
JD Vance did that as well.
Oh, you did that.
Yeah.
He is such a
horrible
person.
Oh, they're
so smooth.
Vance is expected to attack Denmark, a US ally.
For now.
for now, which comes as President Trump has inflamed international tension with threats to take over Greenland.
Greenland's prime minister said earlier this week, until recently, we could safely rely on the Americans who were our allies and friends and with whom we like to work closely.
But that time is over because the new American leadership is completely and utterly indifferent to what we have stood together on so far.
Now it's only a matter of a matter of them taking over our country over our heads.
So have a fun trip today, JD.
It's going to be quick.
It's going to be kind of a turnaround.
Yeah.
Go to the base, turn around, fly back.
Go away, really.
Just go.
Just go away.
And really quick, I just want to reiterate the fact that Mark Carney, who is replaced Justin Trudeau in Canada, also said America can no longer be trusted.
Yeah, that's.
News is coming up next.
I hope you will stay with us.
You are listening to Matt Nair on air.
This is the vast statewide countrywide Get the app or global baby
civic
media radio network.
We'll be right back
Good morning and welcome.
Welcome to Matt Nair on air.
Jane Matt Nair, Greg Buck, Dr. Slide on the board coming to you live from our studio here at Radio Park in Racine.
You can always join us, call or text the number is the same.
855-7524842.
Leave a comment on the live stream on Facebook, YouTube and what used to be Twitter coming up after the 11 o'clock news.
Our next round of the
breaking the spring text to win statewide contest.
We will have a key word to give you right after the news at 11 o'clock.
You want to text in that keyword using the Civic Media app.
And that's going to put you in the running for either a getaway at Chula Vista, some Milwaukee Brewers club level tickets or $100 cash.
And every entry will get you into our grand prize drawing a brand new queen mattress set from Burlo.
with a mattress, sheets, and more.
So stick around to be listening for that keyword.
Coming up after the 11 o'clock news, our break into spring, a spring, rather, text to win statewide contest.
Next chance in the one o'clock hour with Todd, and then in the four o'clock hour with Dominic.
Right now, they're very excited to be talking to our next guest.
He is the director of the National, of National Affairs,
for the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation.
Tyler Wensloff is joining us.
Good morning, Tyler.
How are you?
Good morning.
I am fantastic on this beautiful Friday.
Beautiful Friday, depending if I guess really where you are.
But we can use the rain, I would think, at least in most parts of the state.
But Tyler, I've been wanting to talk to you for a while about the practice of foreign countries buying farmland in Wisconsin.
And you appeared in an article
in the CapTimes not too long ago talking about this particular issue.
This is an article in the CapTimes, as I said, from Erin McGrody, foreign ownership of Wisconsin farmland is a problem according to lawmakers.
So this is not a new thing, Tyler.
Is it that foreign countries are buying American farmland?
No, not really.
I mean, you've heard some stories from North Dakota about the Chinese purchasing land next to military installations.
Canada has had a footprint in Wisconsin for a very long time when it comes to timber contracts.
But it's a relatively new thing that lawmakers are getting interested in.
And so we're happy to work with them and see where they want to go with this.
Tyler, how does this benefit Wisconsin farmers?
Can you explain to me how this actually works?
Yeah,
so foreign ownership in the state is really based on Canada and Chinese.
So when you talk about the Canadian ownership, most of those are in timber contracts.
And the Chinese are based in some of the chemical companies that you see around the state that do a lot of research.
And so while foreign investment in farmland may be a relatively small percentage of the overall land ownership in the state, its impacts can be pretty significant, especially with Wisconsin stands in terms of agricultural research.
The concerns about foreign ownership and investment really extend far beyond just the land ownership and it encompasses all parts of the food supply chain.
So it raises serious national security and economic issues, especially we saw this especially highlighted during COVID-19.
It highlighted the vulnerabilities in the US food system.
This is particularly true in sectors like the meat processing, where foreign ownership has significant implications.
Four out of five of the largest meat processing companies are controlled by foreign corporations.
So when you start talking about situations like wars, pandemics, trade disputes, which obviously is a big deal right now.
Our nation's ability to produce its own food can become a matter of survival.
A company that can't feed itself cannot survive.
And so foreign ownership of key supply segments could complicate things, especially when you start talking about tariffs and what's going on at the national politics.
Republican lawmakers in the Wisconsin legislature have introduced a bill specifically seeking to keep
foreign adversaries of the U.S.
from owning agricultural land in Wisconsin.
And on the federal level, junior Senator U.S.
Senator Tammy Baldwin has partnered with Iowa Republican Senator Chuck Grassley on a measure that would implement tighter policies to track this, to track foreign ownership of agricultural land.
Are these good measures, do you think, Tyler?
Is that a move in the right direction?
It's definitely a step in the direction.
So when you started talking about like Senator Baldwin's efforts, we supported her effort back on the Farmland Security Act of 2022, which was signed into law as part of the fiscal year 2023 omnibus appropriations bill.
This included new requirements that USDA is implementing right now to address our security concerns.
She also has a new bill, Farmland Security Act 2025.
which builds on her efforts and there's also another bill it's important to remember so when you talk about uh at the federal level uh foreign ownership and who reviews this so there's a committee that reviews it's uh it's uh the committee on foreign investment in the united states and it's made up of different chairs so it's the treasury the justice homeland security commerce defense state energy
US trade representatives the office of science and technology and policy so all these all these people are involved in reviewing Foreign ownership, but there's one big giant red flag of somebody who's missing USDA USDA is in charge of farmland and they're not on this committee We were supporting up.
Yeah, it's it's crazy.
It's it's absolutely crazy.
So we also support a bill that would put
USDA on this committee so they can start so they can help review some of the purchases that are going on.
Why would they?
I'm sorry.
You just
blew
both of our minds.
I had a
question prepared.
I don't remember what words are anymore.
What are you talking about?
USDA
is not
involved in this.
They are not a member of the committee.
And so it's it's crazy.
It's just it's you know, the agency is
multi-billion dollar agency that's in charge of all of our food and in Commerce and they are not on the committee that reviews for an ownership
Just give us one
second Folks listen to this information music, please.
I'm sorry brief intermission.
That's
just that is is there a is there a reason?
Were they on they were taken off?
Is there was there ever an explanation on why they weren't on there in the first place?
I mean this is
in and of itself a story in my opinion.
Yeah, it's crazy that this has not gotten more attention.
I don't know like the background of why they're not on it.
If there's simple, you know, government oversight of, hey, let's not include these guys.
But, you know, it's one of those things where obviously this would be a department that should be involved.
They should be
And it seems like common sense.
Of course, this is this is, you know, government we're talking about.
That's true.
Who's not here?
Who did we forget to invite?
Oh,
wait, don't tell me.
Don't tell me it'll come to me.
Oh, the farm guys.
Well,
besides what seems to be an inexplicable, I don't want to call it blunder, but like just oversight oversight, whatever you're like, I'm just baffled by the thing in the article we've read is that, you know,
It's a pretty bipartisan thing too.
This, this doesn't seem to be a controversial, uh, uh, path forward.
Like they're, you know, Tammy Baldwin at the federal level, Andre shock is involved on the, and the state level.
And we always, we always love to see bipartisanship, but is there anything that stands in the way of that?
I mean, we know their special interests.
There's lobbying groups, all those things, but with.
a strong sense of having, making sure that American land is owned, at least by American companies, if not American people.
What are, are there any bumps ahead that you see?
Yeah.
So I think as you guys rightly pointed out, this is a, you know, non-partisan issue in a agriculture for the most part has been pretty non-partisan.
Um, people usually have, have gotten along on most of the issues because obviously some smaller stuff that things.
get a little bit more difficult.
But when you talk about the state level, it's everybody's really on the same page for the most part.
We're all moving in the same direction.
We want to see this go forward.
What it comes down to is, OK, what are they going to be the limits?
Because right now at the state, we already have a limit on the amount of foreign agricultural land that can be owned within a township.
And so what is that number, that new number going to be?
And then, is it going to be retrospective or prospective?
And then, what is that going to mean to our friends up north, you know, with the Canadian timber contracts with Sygentil?
They have a huge, or Sygentil, sorry, they have a huge research facilities here and plots of land that they do research on.
You know, it's
It's one of those things where we want to continue to do R&D here.
We want to have investment in Wisconsin agriculture
and
some of that stuff is going to have to come from overseas.
But we don't want to hamper that, but we also want to make sure that we hold, we don't want foreign agriculture.
We don't want Ireland because they're not making more agriculture land.
We don't want that brought up and turned into, you know, just held on to.
and turned into foul land.
So it's a balancing act.
It's a needle that we're going to have to thread through.
And so it's taking a little bit of work, I think, but we're all moving in the right direction.
And it's been a minute since I read the article.
And is there going to be something in legislation that will let's say one of these foreign companies or groups wants to sell the land off?
Will there be a
something in there that says, like, you must entertain offers from American individuals
or
groups first before selling it to another foreign group.
Yeah, sure.
So, like, almost like a TikTok type thing where, you know, you know, you have to find an American buyer or something like that.
There it is.
Yep.
Yeah, so I think that's probably something that they're looking at and working in.
It's one of those things where it's pretty fluid situation right now where conversations are still getting into the details while we have a basic outline on what we want to do.
Those kind of details are...
may not actually be written into the bill and those might be coming in through rules through the actual department when they try to implement it.
If you're just joining us, Tyler Wensloff is our guest.
He is the director of national affairs for the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation.
And we're talking again about foreign investments in US farmland and agriculture and what that means.
And I think you said something really interesting, Tyler, when you talked about particularly the meat processors in the US.
and which have a lot of foreign ownership and how difficult it is when we talk about America is going to be completely self-reliant and we don't need anything from anybody.
That's really not realistic.
As you said, there are some things we are always going to need from overseas.
Yeah, it's unfortunate.
Four out of the five largest meat processing companies in the US are controlled by foreign corporations.
So you have JBS, who's Brazilian, Tyson, who's
partially owned by a foreign firm Cargill privately owned but has a substantial international investment Smithfield Fu is Chinese owned so you know we you started talking about these things and this was especially true when COVID was going on is that they don't always have the best interest in of the US in their minds when they're making business decisions and so especially when you started talking about
the meat processing facilities.
So it becomes very interesting when you start looking at how these companies are going to be controlled and how they control the food supply in the United States.
And like I said, if you cannot feed yourself and it becomes a national security issue.
And so this is especially true if you start, if you start looking at, you know, we have tariffs going on, tariff wars.
And so these could
spiral into something else, where if you all of a sudden decide, okay, especially in Taiwan, you know, that all of a sudden becomes a hot zone.
Tyler, I'm going to have to put you on hold.
We're coming up against a heartbreak.
We will be right back.
We're going to continue our conversation with Tyler Wensloff.
Stay close.
You are listening to Matt Nair on air.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
We'll be right back.
Good morning and welcome back to Natnair on air.
Jane Natnair, Greg Bach, Dr. Slide on the board coming to you from our studio at Radio Park in Racine where you can join us, call or text.
The number is the same.
It's 855-752-4842.
Leave a comment on the live stream on Facebook, YouTube and what used to be Twitter.
It's coming up very shortly.
Our break into spring.
Text to win statewide contest.
After the 11 o'clock news, we will have a keyword for you to text in via the Civic Media app.
We are playing next hour for either a Chula Vista getaway Milwaukee Brewers Club level tickets or 100 bucks in cash.
And then everyone who plays is going to be in the drawing for the grand prize, a brand new queen mattress set from Verlo, including a mattress sheets.
and more, so stick around.
Our break into spring text to win contest coming up after the 11 o'clock news.
Right now, we're joined by Tyler Wensloff.
He's the director of national affairs for the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation.
Briefly, Tyler, for people who do not know, what is it that the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation does?
Yes, so the Wisconsin Farm Bureau is Wisconsin's
largest general ag organization.
We represent farms of all commodities, all sizes and all management styles and we are the lobby organization for farmers and we try to represent them in the halls of the state capitol in Madison at the capitol hill in Washington DC and also in different towns and county boards as well.
when, right before we went to the break where you were talking about, there's actually something bipartisan that both Democrats and Republicans can seem to be agreeing on, which is a miraculous thing in
and of itself.
We love that when it happens about trying to keep an eye on foreign ownership of farmland in the United States.
But I also wanted to talk, Tyler, I'm sure you're hearing from Wisconsin Farmers now about all of these tariffs that we're waiting to go into effect.
Also curious, Donald Trump's first Secretary of Agriculture, Sonny Perdue, famously said at one point, go big or go home.
That's got to be concerning to a lot of Wisconsin farmers.
Yeah, the tariff battle has been something that we understand that...
has to be done, but we hopefully it's not a protracted battle.
When I talk to Wisconsin farmers and agribusinesses, they're okay right now.
They have the fertilizer they need for the planting season.
But once you start talking about second application and harvest, that's when we could see prices and imports really elevate.
And the other thing that I keep seeing, which I don't know, maybe I'm the only one who doesn't understand, what is potash?
So that's a main fertilizer that Wisconsin farmers use it comes out of Canada and It I think like 98% of it that we use comes out of a Canada is something ridiculous amount high high percentage and it's it's something that we can't produce here in the States and We need it for Wisconsin agriculture.
Is that it is it a fertilizer?
Yes.
Yes.
Yep
But again, it is impossible in this day and age for us to supply every single thing that we need.
There are other things that we need from other countries.
And it always will be that way.
As you just said, Tyler, we don't produce potash here, and we never will.
No, it's not something that we can produce here in the States.
You know, we're not, the tier of battle is not something that we really were looking forward to when it was first announced.
And we're hopefully hoping that it doesn't, isn't a protracted battle, but the uncertainty really.
The on again, off again thing is really is what is concerning to Wisconsin farmers.
And you know, Wisconsin farmers, they're, they're optimistic.
They, they're flexible.
The problem is we just need to know the rules of the game and we could play it.
We just, but the moving of the goalpost and the rules and stuff, that's, that's the uncertainty that really is, is difficult to handle.
We talk to farmers a lot on this show, Tyler.
And one of the things they can all agree on is that.
you know, they go to the, they go to Washington, do their days and meet their representatives.
And, you know, we still don't know a farm bill and it's just everything that's happening.
They just, they don't want to hand out.
They don't want to check.
They want to work.
That's what they want to do.
And regardless of who they vote for, that's what they are in it for because they're not, they're not in it to become billionaires.
They're going to provide a service to the state and they want to work.
And I think that's a fair, that's a fair request is have some simple guidelines.
and then allow them to do the work they so desperately want to do.
Well, farmers deal with so much uncertainty the way it is, right, Tyler?
Just with the weather alone.
And then, as you said, the moving, the constant moving of these goalposts, it's just got to be exhausting.
I can't even imagine.
Yeah, it's one of those things where they're price takers, not price makers.
You know, we don't ask for that of any other industry in the country.
And so it makes it very difficult.
The dairy farmers are also dealing with changes to the federal milk marketing orders.
and an increase in make market that make allow us that will take money out of Wisconsin Farmers checks.
So it's a lot going on right now.
There's a lot of moving pieces.
Like you said, the Farm Bill is still there.
We still have jobs and tax cuts that we would like to make permanent.
So Congress has a lot on their plate that they need to get done in 2025.
Absolutely.
Tyler Winslow, the Director of National Affairs for the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation.
Thank you so very much, Tyler.
It's been
really, really enlightening.
Really appreciate your time.
Thank you so much.
I really appreciate it.
Stay with us.
News is coming up next.
When we return, Judge Susan Crawford will be here and we're also going to kick off the statewide text to win breaking the spring contest.
Be listening for that keyword.
It's on the way and stay with us.
You're listening to Matt Nair on air on the Civic Media Radio Network.