Big Ag’s opposition to small farms is growing. While lobbyists try to block concerned local communities from adopting Operations Ordinances to protect themselves from the damaging impacts of massive factory farms, they’re making a grab for funds intended to help small dairy farmers.

Senate Bill 323 and Assembly Bill 363 in the Wisconsin Legislature would establish a low-interest loan program for small dairy farms of less than 1,000 animal units, but lobbyists from Wisconsin Farm Bureau are pushing to remove the animal unit threshold for the bill and allow large industrial factory farms to qualify for the loans. Giving in to their demands would let factory farms grab the lion’s share of the money and crowd out the small farmers the bill’s authors are trying to help.

Sen. Rob Stafsholt, who represents much of western Wisconsin, originally introduced the bill as a way for small and medium-sized farms to be able to afford equipment and improvements for their farms that would usually be only affordable for large factory farms. Speaking to the proposed change,  Stafsholt said, “Going forward, I have no intention of switching that number.”

The lobbyists’ attempts are part and parcel of how the livestock industry is shoving its hand into the till to fuel massive consolidation of dairy farms. A new report from the Sustain Rural Wisconsin Network has documented Big Ag’s agenda to siphon tax-exempt financing to subsidize the huge costs of farm consolidation. As the report shows, lawyers and financiers, many from out of state, are behind the schemes to plant massive factory farms across rural Wisconsin. They make secret deals to steer public financing to factory farms worth $50 million or more.

There’s a reason for the secrecy. Local residents don’t want factory farms harming their communities. Factory farms are industrial operations, with barns a quarter-mile long that pump out millions of gallons of liquid waste and spew toxic air emissions. They send out fleets of heavy trucks that pound their way across rural roads to spread huge quantities of waste on farmland, from where it can leach into drinking water and surface water, ruining prized trout fisheries. Factory farms also create huge fire risks to local volunteer firefighters and their equipment.

The report spotlights the lengths Big Ag will go to consolidate farms. In Pierce County, Ridge Breeze Dairy plans to triple its size by building a quarter-mile long factory with 6,500 cows producing an estimated 80 million gallons of manure a year. That's enough to fill 100 Olympic-size swimming pools. In early 2025, Pierce County’s Board of Supervisors chair signed off on an agreement that would allow Ridge Breeze to move forward in receiving $18 million in tax-exempt Public Finance Authority funds to Ridge Breeze for its expansion. That financing would have funded more than half the cost of the project. Local citizens caught wind of the scheme and demanded cancellation of the deal. Late last year, the PFA confirmed that they would not move forward with Ridge Breeze.

In Pierce County, local residents have shown they possess the power to stop special interests from hatching secret deals to subsidize factory farms that put property and public health at risk, but Big Ag is relentless. Communities must use all the tools available, including Operations Ordinances, to protect themselves, while continuing to organize for statewide policy that will put small farms first.

GROWW is a grassroots organization based in Western Wisconsin. Together, we work toward a future where we all make ends meet, live with dignity, and have a voice in shaping the decisions that impact us. To get connected or learn more about GROWW, visit us at GRO-WW.org, on Instagram at @GrowWisconsin, or on Facebook at Facebook.com/GROWWisconsin