BROWN COUNTY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — From rural roads to airports and harbors, transportation and commerce are a big part of Wisconsin’s biennial budget. The budget made what’s being called a historic investment in rural infrastructure with a priority on agriculture.
Valuing Wisconsin dairy, BelGioioso Cheese, the maker of Italian specialty cheeses, has called Northeast Wisconsin home since 1979.
Every day its drivers are hauling more than a hundred loads of fresh milk, in big trucks, to any one of its cheese plants. Not only does it have its own fleet of vehicles, but the company contracts with dozens of others to haul milk from its partner farms too.
“I think we’re in over eight counties picking up milk. We go from here almost a hundred miles north, 70 miles south. It’s unbelievable how many miles we’re putting on in a day,” says Julie Cooper, milk procurement manager for BelGioioso.
A lot of those miles are on rural roads where drivers of any kind of vehicle face a number of obstacles. Cooper says, “These guys are going a lot slower than they used to on some of these roads, the way they are. Some of them get kind of nervous. You get a narrow road that’s got a lot of potholes, you hit a hole or bouncy.”
Time and wear and tear on vehicles, driven regularly on rural roads, is costly for whoever is the operator. And while rural roads are important to the farmers who live and work on them, they also tend to be low-traffic, low-priority when it comes to improvement projects.
The lack of improvements not only creates safety concerns, but for companies like BelGioioso, rough roads can be costly to equipment and also harmful to the fresh product they haul.
Cooper says, “The slosh of the milk actually effects the butter fat composition in the milk. We don’t want that to flow around in there too much. It actually breaks it down in the truck.”
But under the state budget signed by Gov. Tony Evers Wednesday, relief and improvements are coming for rural roads.
According to state Transportation Secretary Craig Thompson, “There’s $150 million for the brand new Agricultural Road Improvement Program that will keep the connection between farm field and markets strong and rural area vital.”
About 90% of the state’s roads are owned and operated by local government. An increase in shared revenue will enable communities with rural roads the opportunity to renovate, update, and maybe in some cases reconfigure roads — to the benefit of everyone.
“Hopefully these updates keep the road smoother,” says Cooper.
Leading to safer, more efficient travel for anyone or anything that travels a country road.
Cooper adds, “It’s all going to have a positive effect at the end of the day, with all the milk. And not just our company, with everybody and for the farmers too and for the safety for all involved.”
