How a tariff war may -- and may not -- impact dairy farmers

GREEN BAY, Wis. (WBAY) - The recent tariff war between President Trump and Canada has sparked agricultural interest, especially here in the dairy state.

President Trump wants to impose a 25% tariff on imports from Canada, but that plan is currently on pause.

For dairy farmers, these tariffs are not affecting their 2025 season, but they may be affected in the future.

Farmers purchase fertilizer to grow crops to feed their cattle. Fertilizer contains three main ingredients, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.

The United States imports approximately 90% of the potassium fertilizers every year, and about 80%-85% of those imports come from Canada.

On a dairy farm, increased tariffs on imports from Canada could be costly, but maybe not.

“The tariff situation, I don’t believe has affected our fertilizer prices yet. Most of the fertilizer ingredients being used this spring are already in the county, in warehouses, and a lot of it is pre-priced in the fall or up through early in the year,” Aaron Barclay, dairy farmer and seed distributor said.

For dairy farmers in northeast Wisconsin, the tariff war has not affected how much they are spending on fertilizer for the 2025 season.

“The only reason tariffs might affect some things is ingredients in a protein mix that do come from out of the country. But we can play the pricing game and bring in a similar product to fill that gap,” Sam Ziegler, a dairy farmer at J-Springs Dairy said.

If the tariffs stay in place, how farmers feed their animals on a smaller scale, won’t be impacted.

“Most likely in my personal operation, it will have very, very limited change because of our land base and our crop rotation, we have it pretty well handled that it won’t change our operation very much,” Barclay said.

But looking at the bigger picture, other options may need to be looked at.

“On a wider scale, we may consider other options if a fertilizer ingredient becomes too expensive. We may grow other forages other than our hay crops or corn such as sorghum or grasses or other alternative crops that we can feed the cattle,” Barclay said.

The tariffs may not have the best impacts on milk production and prices at first, but in the long run, they may improve.

“The tariff situation, I believe will have a slight positive impact on the dairy equation. But there may be some short-term price drops until the tariff situations are settled. Long term, this will look to improve our milk markets,” Barclay said.

Farmers we spoke with say that being patient with the tariff war and learning to adjust when needed, are key to a successful farming season.

“It’s one of those things that’s out of our control, so it doesn’t pay to worry about it. Let’s focus on what we can control, and mitigate those risks as they come up,” Ziegler said.

If you would like to hear more information on the tariff impacts from a regional crops and soil educator, Action 2 News’ 4:30 anchor and sports director Chris Roth conducted an interview with a regional crop and soil educator that you can watch here.

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