What Mid-West Farm Report heard from the 2026 Wisconsin Agricultural Outlook Forum this week is that farmers are looking at the third straight year of negative margins for staple crops like corn and soybeans. Government aid is coming down the pipeline, but economists are critical that it is solely a temporary fix. Paul Mitchell, Director of the Renk Agribusiness Institute at UW-Madison, says the financial pressure has some farm families reaching a breaking point. Wisconsin alone saw filings jump from two at the end of 2024 to 13 by the fall of 2025, Mitchell says. Farmers are swallowed by an 80-cent negative margin.