Good morning. 
Wednesday in Whitewater will be rainy with a high of sixty-one. Sunrise is 6:53 AM and sunset 6:33 PM, for 11h 40m 01s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 18.4% of its visible disk illuminated.
Today is the one thousand fifty-eighth day.
On this day in 1958, 4,000 members of United Auto Workers Locals at Janesville’s two GM plants walked off the job as part of a national strike
Recommended for reading in full:
Heather Long reports Trump is heading into reelection with a deep manufacturing recession:
U.S. manufacturing fell deeper into a contraction last month, erasing hope of a quick turnaround for the industry and handing a blow to President Trump’s promises that he would revive blue-collar jobs and companies.
September marked the worst month for U.S. manufacturing in more than a decade — since June 2009 — according to the closely watched Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing index. Companies blamed Trump’s escalating trade war for many of their woes, putting pressure on the White House to show progress soon. Manufacturing remains a prominent industry in many swing states.
“Global trade remains the most significant issue, as demonstrated by the contraction in new export orders that began in July 2019. Overall, sentiment this month remains cautious regarding near-term growth,” said Timothy R. Fiore, chair of ISM.
….
Manufacturing fell into a technical recession in the first half of the year, and the latest ISM data indicates the situation appears to be getting worse.
Concerns are rising that the contraction in manufacturing could spill over into the rest of the U.S. economy. Stocks sold off quickly on the news that nearly every manufacturing sector reported trouble, with the Dow Jones industrial average ending the day with a 344-point loss.
“There is no end in sight to this slowdown, the recession risk is real,” said Torsten Slok, chief economist at Deutsche Bank Securities, in an email to clients.
(Emphasis added.)
Patrick Marley reports Trump ag secretary Sonny Perdue says dairy farms will survive, but may have to get bigger. (Alternative headline — Trump Administration to Family Farmers: DROP DEAD. H/t New York Daily News.)
President Donald Trump’s agriculture secretary said Tuesday he believes dairy farms can stay in business, but they may have to get bigger to do so.
“I think the 2018 farm bill will stem the flow of that” loss of dairy farms in recent years, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue told reporters.
“Now what we see, obviously, is economies of scale having happened in America — big get bigger and small go out. … It’s very difficult on economies of scale with the capital needs and all the environmental regulations and everything else today to survive milking 40, 50, 60 or even 100 cows, and that’s what we’ve seen.”
Perdue made his comments after holding a town hall meeting with farmers and dairy industry officials at the kickoff of the annual World Dairy Expo at Madison’s Alliant Energy Center.
Grant County dairy farmer Jerry Volenec expressed frustration with Perdue’s comments.
“What I heard today from the secretary of agriculture was there’s no place for me,” said Volenec, who spoke at a news conference organized by the state Democratic Party.
Nearly 3,000 U.S. dairy farms folded in 2018, about a 6.5% decline, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture figures.
Wisconsin lost nearly 700 — almost two a day — as even dairy farmers used to enduring hard times called it quits in the fourth year of a downturn in milk prices.
See also How Walker and Trump Destroyed Dairies in America’s Dairyland.