Application period open for Grow Wisconsin 30x20 grants

Nov 19, 2015

Applications must be submitted by Friday, December 18

Dairy producers and processors in Wisconsin are being encouraged by the state’s Department of Agriculture and by Governor Scott Walker to apply for Grow Wisconsin 30x20 grants.

“Wisconsin’s safe, high-quality dairy products are respected locally and around the world,” said Governor Walker. “In order to promote the continued success of Wisconsin’s dairy industry, we started the Grow Wisconsin Dairy 30x20 initiative. As a part of that initiative, this grant will help Wisconsin’s dairy farms improve efficiencies and enhance profitability.”

Dairy cow

The grants aim to improve Wisconsin’s dairy industry by investing in dairy farm projects and other problem solving solutions facing the producers and processors.

Recipients can receive as much as $5,000 and would need to pay a cost share of 20% of the total grant amount. The grants can also be customized to hire consultants to address specific business needs.

The goal of Dairy 30x20 is to assist the dairy industry annually produce 30 billion pounds of milk by 2020 to meet the growing consumer demands.

According to the National Agricultural Statistics Service:

Wisconsin has more than 1.2 million dairy cows as of January 2015
Each cow produced about 21,869 pounds of milk in 2014
Total milk production in 2014 was more than 27 billion pounds
Total value of milk in 2014 was more than $6 billion

Producers and processors must submit their applications by Friday, December 18^th, 2015.

Join the conversation and tell us if you’ll consider applying for a Dairy 30x20 grant. Where on your farm would the grant money have the most impact?

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.