Wisconsin Ag Connection - Wisconsin Dairy Herd Count Falls Below 10,000

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Wisconsin Dairy Herd Count Falls Below 10,000
Wisconsin Ag Connection - 05/08/2015

For the first time in many generations, the total number of dairy farm operations in Wisconsin has fallen below the 10,000 mark. The state's agriculture department has announced its latest dairy herd count numbers, which indicates there were 9,992 herds milking as of April 1. That's a drop of about 412 herds since the same month a year ago. As of May 1, that number drop by another 63 to a total of 9,929.

Despite the lower number of dairies, Wisconsin farmers did produce a record 27.7 billion pounds of milk last year and had over 1.27 million head of milking cows, also a record high.

Currently, Clark County continues to hold the highest number of herds in the state with 872, with Marathon County totalling 581. Forest County ranks last in the state with just one herd, followed by Milwaukee County's two and Florence County with three.

During the last agricultural census in 2012, the USDA estimated there were nearly 1,300 farms that had 19 cows or less; 3,200 that milked 20-49 cows; about 4,200 operations with 40-99 cows; 1,580 farms with 100-199 cows; 815 farms milking 200-499 cows; 256 operations with 500-999 cows; 106 farms with 1,000 to 2,499 cows; and 25 dairies with more than 2,500 cows.

Wisconsin has been keeping track of dairy farm numbers since 1950. At that time, the state had 143,000 dairy operations and accounted for about four percent of the nation's total dairy farms.

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