Dairy Farmers in Wisconsin Are Banding Together To Sue the Trump Administration

A group of Wisconsin dairy farmers are banding together against a common enemy: The Trump administration. Three farmers have joined together to file a lawsuit against the administration over the Dairy Checkoff Program.

The government-funded program requires that the dairy farmers pay fees depending on how much milk they sell, which is used to fund a variety of government-backed programs, which the farmers say they have not agreed to lend their support to.

And while some of the things that the Dairy Checkoff Program is supposed to do would undoubtedly help dairy farmers sell more milk, it seems like they take issue with a facet of the program that involves reducing greenhouse gases created during milk production, with an intended focus on sustainability.

The farmers claim all of this puts too much stress on them, especially for the smaller operations. Here's everything we know about the lawsuit and the Dairy Checkoff Program.

Three different dairy farmers in Wisconsin have come together to file a lawsuit, according to The Hill. Paperwork was filed on June 10, 2026, and the suit takes aim at both the fees collected by the Dairy Checkoff Program and the data that dairy farmers are required to share with the agency in order to be allowed to sell their milk.

According to the lawsuit, the farmers especially take issue with the funds that are being collected to use for the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy.

The Hill says that this nonprofit is responsible for advocating for more sustainable practices when it comes to milk production, which could directly affect dairy farmers, their operations, and their bottom line.

According to the publication, the fees which are collected from U.S. dairy farmers add up to around $300 million a year, which can obviously take a pretty big chunk out of the profits these dairy farmers are making, especially as production costs continue to rise.

If you're unfamiliar with the Dairy Checkoff Program, The Hill says that it requires farmers to pay 15 cents for every 100 pounds of milk sold. This is on top of the 7.5 cents per hundredweight that is already paid on imported milk.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the average dairy cow produced 2,054 pounds of milk in 2025. That means the average farmer is paying a few hundred dollars a year to the checkoff program, per cow.

According to the Dairy Herd Management blog, the average mid-sized farm has a little less than 500 cows, which means smaller operations could be paying the government more than $100,000 in fees alone.

When you consider that they're paying into a program they claim they didn't want in the first place, it's easy to see why some of these farmers are ready to sue. Whether a judge agrees with them will be a different story, and only time will tell how this all works out for the farmers.