Members of the agriculture community are in the capitol city to meet their representatives and talk about farming.
Farmers from across the state gather at the Monona Terrace in Madison for Ag Day at the Capitol. Bill Bruins, President of the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation , says hundreds of farmers are learning more about state issues and meeting their legislators.
"The big money issue for agriculture is our use-value assessment of farmland. And, as you may or may not know, that that literally means what it says and that farmland is assessed on its use, rather than its market value."
Bruins says farmers have a lot of important issues to work on, including accessible, affordable and portable healthcare.
"We're gonna have to eat this elephant one bite at a time. But one of the bites I think can be implementation of HSAs — Health Savings Accounts — and making them tax deductible for the people that use them. So that's just one little bite of the elephant, so to speak."
It's also important to keep support for discovery farms — developing environmentally friendly practices on the working farms. Bruins says they just recently got livestock siting legislation in place, and they hope to keep it that way. There is also the ongoing concern of the Right to Farm legislation.
Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch ( pronounce ) (R-West Salem) and State Sen. Kathleen Vinehout (D-Alma) are featured speakers at Ag Day at the Capitol.
AUDIO: Jackie Johnson report (1:18 MP3)
