JOHNSON CREEK – They arrived by truck in the late morning, pulling trailers loaded with cows and steers. One after another, the farmers unloaded their animals into holding pens, and went inside to wait for a check.
It was auction day in Johnson Creek, just as it is every Monday and every Thursday. But these days, livestock auctions in Wisconsin are anything but routine.
With farmers using winter hay now to keep their cows alive while facing record feed bills they can’t pay, some are taking a difficult and somewhat drastic step. They are selling off their animals. And business at state livestock auctions has surged since the drought gripped the state.
“In the last two weeks, we’ve seen an unexpected increase in the number of animals we’ve handled,” said Janice Schyvinck, a spokeswoman for Equity Cooperative Livestock Sales Association. “Last week we had over 150 percent increase.”
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