Description: This chart shows long run trends in the number of farms, cows, milk produced, and value of dairy products sold in Wisconsin between 1960 and 2001. The data are displayed as a percent of their value in 1960 (so we could fit them onto the same chart). The results suggest that recent declines in farm and cows numbers have been a long-run phenomenon. On the other hand, losses of farms during the 1960s and 1970s were more than compensated for by increasing herd sizes and rising productivity, such that the overall volume of milk produced in Wisconsin grew rather steadily during that period. This situation changed in the late 1980s. The volume of milk peaked in 1988, and has been declining or stagnant since that time. Meanwhile, milk prices (the all-milk price received by farmers adjusted for inflation) peaked in 1979, and has declined to less than 60 percent of the price received back in 1960. The real value of milk sold in Wisconsin (the gross income received by state dairy farmers) also peaked in 1979 and has dropped almost every year since that point.

Source: The data come from published statistics compiled by the Wisconsin Agricultural Statistics Service (WASS), a division of the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection. Most data are available in an annual WASS publication titled "Agricultural Statistics". For more recent data, visit their web site at: http://www.nass.usda.gov/wi/.