Wisconsin Diary Cow Herds Continue to Decline; Clark County Still the Highest

Monday, July 19th, 2021 -- 9:01 AM

(Wisconsin Ag Connection) The state's agriculture department has announced its latest dairy herd count numbers, which indicates there were 6,755 herds milking in Wisconsin during the first week of July.

According to the Wisconsin Ag Connection, that's down by 177 since the first of January and 324 less than this time a year earlier. A look into the Wisconsin Ag Connection archives show that the herd count is exactly half of what it was in October 2008.

Clark County continues to hold the highest number of herds in the state with 705, followed by Marathon County with 411. Milwaukee County registered just one herd as of July 1, while Forest and Florence had none at all.

Despite having less operating dairy farms, the state's remaining herds are still milking over 1.28 million head and producing a record amount of milk. DATCP records show that 91 percent of state dairy operations are Grade A certified, with nine percent licensed as Grade B.

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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