Office of the Secretary 2811 Agriculture Dr., Madison, WI 53718-6777
608/224-5012 FAX 608/224-5034
Contact: Donna Gilson
608-224-5130

MADISON -- Wisconsin’s wet autumn has led Gov. Jim Doyle to issue an
executive order allowing farmers to haul overweight loads on most
roads to get their crops to storage or processing.

The order will last through the end of December, except for the
Christmas holidays, Dec. 24-27, and exempts vehicles from weight
restrictions if they are carrying corn, potatoes, cranberries and
soybeans to storage or processing. These loads
can exceed weight limits by 15 percent. Farmers must meet all other
vehicle requirements for size, operation and driver qualifications,
and cannot travel on roadways with special weight restrictions or on
most interstates. The only portion of the interstate system included
in the exemption is I-39 between Hwy. 51 and I-90/94 in northern Dane
and southern Columbia counties.

“Unseasonably cool and damp weather has resulted in significantly
above-average crop moisture in the state’s soybean and corn crops, and
it will take through December for the crops to be harvested,” the
Governor’s order reads in part, and says the order is necessary “to
avoid a disastrous loss of the 2009 harvest.”

Normally, virtually all of the state’s soybean crop and nearly 90
percent of the corn crop is harvested by this time. But a cool summer
delayed development, and by the time crops were ready for harvest, the
wet fall had set in, keeping farmers
out of the fields. As of Monday, Wisconsin Agricultural Statistics
Service was reporting that only 59 percent of the corn crop was in,
and 94 percent of the soybeans. To make matters worse, the wet fall
means a higher-than-normal moisture content for crops, so the loaded
vehicles carrying the harvest are heavier than usual.

Agriculture Secretary Rod Nilsestuen asked the Governor for the
exemption at the request of a coalition including the Wisconsin
Agri-Service Association, the Wisconsin Corn Growers Association and
the Wisconsin Farm Bureau.
Since 2005, Wisconsin law has granted an automatic exemption to
roadway weight limits from Sept. 1 to Nov. 30 for vehicles carrying
harvested crops. “The Legislature could not have anticipated the
extreme conditions of 2009 that create the need for higher weight
limits to transport the harvest beyond Nov. 30 through the end of the
year,” Nilsestuen said in his letter to the Governor.