Description: This figure gives the estimated number of Wisconsin dairy farm entrants and exiters, and the net change in dairy farm numbers per year from 1978 to 1997. The number of exiters has remained relatively constant since 1978 at between 1,800 and 2,000 a year. However, the number of new entrants has fallen dramatically from just over 1,400 annually in the early 1980's to less than 350 annually between 1992 to 1997. The associated rapid increase in net dairy farm losses in the mid-1980s and 1990s is primarily the result of significantly fewer younger people entering dairy, and not -- contrary to most popular accounts - a product of more farm closings.

Source: Estimations based on Census of Agriculture data, various years.