Description: This chart shows the number of Wisconsin farms (overall) and dairy farms reported in the Census of Agriculture between 1959 and 1997. The graph illustrates the fact that declining farm numbers has been a long-run phenomenon, and that some of the largest net losses of farms occurred in the 1960s. While 80 percent of the state's farms used to raise milk cows, this has fallen to less than 35 percent by the late 1990s.

Source: The data come from the United States Census of Agriculture, which is conducted roughly every 5 years. For more detailed information about Census statistics, visit the home page of the Bureau of the Census at: http://www.census.gov/.