Tom Oberhaus is the co-operator of Cozy Nook Farm in Waukesha County. Cozy Nook is primarily a dairy farm, and it supplements its business with seasonal pumpkin and Christmas tree sales.
When Lake Effect’s Sam Woods spoke with Oberhaus in January, Christmas tree sales were down and the farm was planning for 2026.
This conversation is part of WUWM's commitment to covering issues our listeners say are top priorities, including the economy. As part of that coverage, we’re exploring how the economy is impacting Wisconsinites with different financial needs and concerns.
Sam checked back in with Oberhaus to see how things are going on the farm ahead of planting season amidst war in Iran, federal aid to farmers and ongoing debate about a federal Farm Bill.
The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Sam Woods: What's next for Cozy Nook Farm in the next few months?
Tom Oberhaus: You know, I'm not sure we have any great, grand plans, but you always like to make some capital improvements every year. We got a new floor put in our milk house, that's pretty exciting. This afternoon, I got a guy coming here to sign on putting new tin on this building that we're in. So it'll look a whole lot better.
Fertilizer, everybody's talking about fertilizer prices. Us, like most farmers, have all their fertilizer booked in the fall. Luckily, we are in a position, and most of us are, that 90% of it or so was actually paid for in December. So rising fertilizer prices doesn't cause us any challenge personally. So fertilizer has been bought, seeds have all been bought. We're just waiting for Mother Nature to warm the soil up and we can start planting. So we're good there.
The thing we aren't booked for is fuel, and we use quite a bit of fuel. So we'll be paying the extra rate on that, but we don't use nearly as much fuel as we did in days of old. In days of old, when we till the soil to plant it and things, we use a lot more fuel. Like a lot of farmers in this area in particular, we're conservation farmers. We use very, very little tillage, very little tillage. So it's pretty much just the planter going through the field, burning up fuel.
Can you give an idea of the percentage rise in expenses that higher fuel prices might run you this year?
We're firm believers or maybe hopefuls that the whole Iranian thing will pass here in the not way too distant future and that oil prices will come back down and whatnot. So no, we haven't done any real good calculations as to how much this does affect our cost of production. Good things we ought to do, but we haven't done those yet.
In late 2025, Trump announced a $12 billion aid package to farmers across the country, and it was pitched as a balance for losses from tariffs. And I know you don't ship too much internationally at Cozy Nook, but are you on the receiving end of that aid package at all?
Yeah, I think virtually everybody that grew corn and or beans and cotton and rice and all kinds of things received it. There was what they call a ‘bridge payment’ supposed to bridge us over until next year, hopefully being better. But we run a very diversified operation, so it all fits together and hopefully we make a profit at the end of the year.
Right now, grain crops are not very good financially. In fact, most of the grain crop farmers are trying to budget for a break-even year. It's pretty sad. In the spring, you get excited about planting, but they're actually hoping to have a break-even year. So it's tough right now, but that's how it is in farming. It goes through ups and downs. We're in a down period right now, but we were in a big up period about four years ago. So when things are good, you need to save money because the not-so-good times are coming.
So another big piece of federal policy looming, the Farm Bill. It's a huge overarching policy document for the food economy meant to set a five-year national vision, but it has only been extended one year at a time since 2023. Understanding that this is a big document covering everything food and farming in the United States, is it something that you are keeping your eye on?
We certainly keep our eyes on it because like you say, it gives like a five-year direction and gives you a little insight as to how you ought to manage your farm and looking forward to capital improvements and whatnot. So yeah, we need a farm bill passed so we know what's going on. Most of the farm bill is not really anything to do with the farm, it's food assistance programs. Most of the dollars in the farm program is food assistance. So, it's frustrating like a whole lot of things that Congress can't sit down and figure things out. Nobody's going to get their way. That's the way government works, you give and go and you agree to go with something in-between. But it's frustrating they can't do that.
